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Category: Project

Description: Open and transparent communication about the benefits, the harms and the uncertainties surrounding the effectiveness of prevention — especially in situations of health emergencies — is essential to building public trust. During the corona (COVID-19) pandemic, however, public health communicators often neglected these standards when explaining the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. Nontransparent communication carries short- and long-term risks though, including decreased trust in health authorities and the spread of conspiracy beliefs. In a cross-sectional online study with COVID-19 vaccine-hesitant German residents (N = 763), we will explore the impact of COVID-19 public health communication on the attitudes of vaccine-hesitant individuals towards vaccines as well as their perceptions of incomprehensible and incomplete information. We will also investigate whether specific formats of public health messaging will be perceived as more trustworthy.