How Can We Increase Compliance with Preventive Measures? Impact of Personal and Social Benefit Messages

In the project, it is aimed to develop an effective health communication method that can increase compliance with protective measures against COVID-19. In addition to the content of the messages used in the calls for compliance with the measures for the public made by the authorities, it is aimed to determine the effects of the messages by whom the messages are conveyed and the psychological characteristics of the target audience on compliance with the measures through experimental research. As a result of the experiments conducted, it was found that emphasizing personal benefit ("protect yourself") and social benefit ("protect your family", "protect your country", "protect your family and your country") in the content of messages by the members of the scientific committee increased compliance with preventive measures at the level of intention and behavior, but these messages It has been determined that there is no effect when it is given by state officials. It was observed that various individual and psychological differences (COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, uncertainty avoidance, impulsivity, cognitive reflection, ideology, level of religiosity and risk perception) of the people who were the target of the message did not affect the effect of the message. It has been understood that people's intention to comply with preventive measures decreases over time. In order to increase compliance with protective measures against the threat of the pandemic, the transmission of public messages by scientists with the themes of "protect yourself" and "protect your family and country" is more likely to create the desired behavioral change in people. Therefore, calls aiming to increase people's compliance with protective measures through mass media can be made by scientists instead of state authorities, and emphasizing the need for people to protect themselves and their loved ones in the messages used may be more effective for controlling the pandemic. Future studies could further explore their impact on compliance with preventive measures by developing the types of messages generated within the scope of the project, and explore whether the identified effect also applies to attitudes towards vaccines.