Information provided by chatbots can positively influence COVID-19 vaccine attitudes and intentions

Altay, S., Hacquin, A.-S., Chevallier, C., & Mercier, H. (2021) Information delivered by chatbots positively influences attitudes and intentions of the COVID-19 vaccine. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xap0000400

Commentary

Since COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is considered high in many countries, such as France, it is also considered important to devise communication strategies to address the concerns of individuals who are hesitant about the vaccine.

This study tested a new messaging strategy on 701 French participants.

It is a chatbot that answers people's questions about the COVID-19 vaccine.

The results showed that operating this chatbot for a few minutes significantly increased the willingness to be vaccinated (ß= 0.12) and positively influenced attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination. (ß= 0.23)