Maximising Social Solidarity and Trust in Public Health Messaging in the Misinformation Era

Drawing on a social psychological approach that places collective concerns at the heart of health, the research aims to generate improved communication, understanding and adherence to public health messaging around SARS-CoV-2. Health messaging to date has sought to emphasize social solidarity, though clearly there are 'at risk' groups. Containment depends on people at less risk (like young people) sacrificing their freedoms to protect the vulnerable. This, along with substantial gaps in our knowledge of this new disease, present a conundrum in terms of public health advice. As the pandemic unfolds a balance needs to be struck. It is essential to communicate risk, without allowing uncertainty, mistrust or complacency to undermine solidarity. The proposed work seeks to understand the value of social solidarity during pandemic to improve communication and adherence to public health advice at the same time as protecting against social isolation at a time when people must remain distant. Through a mixed method approach, using a longitudinal quantitative survey and theoretically sampled interviews, we will explore drivers of social solidarity with emergency health measures across key risk groups. Informed by these data, we will develop specific public messages. Using available online social network data we will then target key groups and evaluate the messaging in terms of its ability to maximize solidarity and trust in government and statutory agencies such as the health services and the police working to respond to this crisis.