Testing the Persuasiveness of Pro-inoculation Arguments

Message Testing Protocol for Misinformation Concerns

The investigators will recruit a national sample of parents of 7-10-year-olds to complete an argument strength ranking for either a simple forwarding message or between 3 and 6 randomly selected arguments from an overall set of 50 to 100 messages identified from various online sources. Parents will rate each message they see on measures of perceived argument strength/PME. Parents will also answer sociodemographic questions and then rank the believability of a set of anti-vaccine messages identified in a different study. Study findings will contribute valuable information to understanding the effectiveness of different inoculation messages.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Male or female parent or legal guardian of an adolescent ages 7-10
2. Age eligible child has not yet received any doses of the HPV vaccine
3. Resides in the United States
4. English speaking
5. Completed informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Unable to read English at a 6th grade literacy level
2. Age < 18
3. Does not have a child within the age range of 7-10
4. Age-eligible child has received 1 or more doses of the HPV vaccine
5. Does not have a social media account on one or more of the following platforms OR does not read online news stories: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook (feasibility testing only - survey participation will not have this exclusion criteria)
6. Unwilling or unable to provide informed consent to study participation