How Emotions, Pronoun Use, and Message Values Shape Public Understanding and Support for Wastewater Monitoring: Experimental Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Although wastewater monitoring is an effective, non-intrusive public health strategy for tracking community-level COVID-19 prevalence, there has been limited research on public perceptions of this novel surveillance method. A significant gap exists in understanding how to design effective communication campaigns to gain public support for wastewater monitoring and persuade individuals to take preventive actions based on the data. OBJECTIVE This study examines the impact of emotional appeals (fear vs. hope) and pronoun use (we vs. you) on public support for COVID-19 wastewater monitoring, intentions to discuss the intervention, and intentions to engage in preventive behaviors. METHODS An online 2 (emotional appeal: fear vs hope) × 2 (pronoun use: you-language vs we-language) between-subjects experiment with a control condition was conducted. A total of 603 US residents were recruited via Prolific in July 2023. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of five message stimuli and then completed a survey measuring emotional responses, message judgments (fatigue and shocking value), and the primary outcome variables. RESULTS Fear appeals led to greater support and stronger intentions to engage in preventive behaviors than hope appeals, while pronoun use had no significant effect. Additionally, message fatigue and shock value mediated the relationship between the message-evoked emotions and the outcome variables, whereby message fatigue was negatively associated with the outcome variables, and message shock value was positively correlated with policy support and communication intention. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that while fear-based messages are effective, communication strategies should also aim to mitigate message fatigue to sustain public engagement and support for long-term public health initiatives.