Social media narratives can influence vaccine intentions: The impact of depicting regret and character death

Anticipated regret, the feeling that we might regret a decision in the future, has been identified as a strong predictor of vaccination behavior, and the proliferation of anticipated regret appeals underscores the need for the empirical study of messages that target regret. The current study evaluated the persuasiveness of narrative depictions of regret and character death on COVID-19 booster vaccine intention. Data were collected from 944 adults in a 2 (no depicted regret, depicted regret) × 2 (character survives, dies) between-participants online message experiment. Results demonstrated that depicting regret had a positive effect on booster vaccine intention, especially among Republicans. Moderated serial mediation analysis supported a model where depicted regret had a positive effect on booster vaccine intention via audience replotting of story events and anticipated regret. While this persuasive process occurred for both Republicans and Democrats, the pathway was stronger for Republicans. Additionally, messages depicting character death produced greater anticipated regret. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results.