Recent data have shown that covid19 is disproportionately infecting and killing African Americans and Latinx people in the United States. The aim of the study is to determine which messages are most effective at increasing knowledge and changing behaviors that can protect individuals and their communities from the virus. To accomplish this aim, we plan to recruit approximately 20,000 Hispanic and African-American individuals and randomly assign them to videos that vary either the sender or the framing of the message, while providing the relevant public health information.
The following procedures will be followed. The research subjects will participate online.
1. Doctors from MGH who express interest in participating will record messages according to
our scripts (US Doctors Script African American, US Doctors Script Latinx). They will be
instructed to film several different versions each.
2. We will recruit a sample of Latinx and African American study participants from across
the country through Lucid, an online survey firm that has access to a large subject
pool.
3. Participants will first read a consent script and give us their informed consent (US
Doctors Messaging Consent)
4. Participants will then navigate through the following steps
1. Brief demographics survey questions (US Doctors Messaging Survey)
2. Videos 1 and 2: Introduction, Acknowledgement, Social Distancing (US Doctors Script
African American, US Doctors Script Latinx). Individuals in the control group will
not see videos.
3. Beliefs survey questions (US Doctors Messaging Survey)
4. Video 3: Masks (US Doctors Script African American, US Doctors Script Latinx).
Again, individuals in the control group will not see a video here.
5. Main outcomes survey (US Doctors Messaging Survey)
6. Control group is shown a version of all 3 videos at end (US Doctors Script African
American, US Doctors Script Latinx).
5. The video messages each participant in one of the treatment groups sees will be
randomized on the following dimensions. The different versions are clearly demarcated in
the US Doctors Scripts document.
1. Racial or ethnic identity of the doctor delivering the messages: concordant vs.
discordant identity to the subject.
2. Whether the message includes an acknowledgment of "elephant in the room" issues for
each target group: trust in the medical system or fear of deportation.
3. Whether the social distancing component of the message is delivered by Dr. Birx of
the CDC or recorded by the MGH physicians.
4. Whether individuals are given information about how representative individuals
perceive mask wearers of color. This information comes from results of our
nationally representative pilot survey.
5. Some individuals in a control group will only see messages after all surveying has
been completed.
Behavioral: Messaging
o The video messages each participant in one of the treatment groups sees will be randomized on the following dimensions. The different versions are clearly demarcated in the US Doctors Scripts document.
Racial or ethnic identity of the doctor delivering the messages: concordant vs. discordant identity to the subject.
Whether the message includes an acknowledgment of "elephant in the room" issues for each target group: trust in the medical system or fear of deportation.
Whether the social distancing component of the message is delivered by Dr. Birx of the CDC or recorded by the MGH physicians.
Whether individuals are given information about how representative individuals perceive mask wearers of color. This information comes from results of our nationally representative pilot survey.
Some individuals in a control group will see messages later.
Inclusion Criteria: Hispanic and African-American adult individuals, men and women -
oversample of those with less completed education Exclusion Criteria: children, those who
do not identify as above
JPAL North America
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States