Borah, PorismitaPorismitaBorahXiao, XizhuXizhuXiaoDr. LEE Ka Lai, DanielleDanielleDr. LEE Ka Lai2026-01-162026-01-162022American Journal of Health Promotion, 2022, vol. 36(6), pp. 923-933.0890-11712168-6602http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11861/26482<jats:sec><jats:title>Purpose</jats:title><jats:p> The main purposes of the current study are to examine 1) the influence of narrative vs statistics messages on COVID-19 related information seeking and COVID-19 vaccine intention and 2) the moderating role of perceived behavioral control (PBC). </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Design</jats:title><jats:p> Data for a between-subject randomized experiment were collected online. The manipulation messages were presented as screenshots from the CDC’s Facebook page. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Setting</jats:title><jats:p> The participants were recruited from Amazon MTurk. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Subjects</jats:title><jats:p> A total of 300 subjects participated in the study, who were 18 years and above ( M = 38.40). </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Measures</jats:title><jats:p> Intention to seek information, COVID-19 vaccine intention, and PBC. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Analysis</jats:title><jats:p> To test the hypotheses, we utilized Hayes’s (2014) PROCESS for SPSS (Model 1). For intention to seek information, the main effect of the message manipulation (narrative vs statistics) [ b = −2.10, t (300) = −4.14, P &lt; .001] and the interaction [ b = .41, t (300) = 3.88, P &lt; .001] were significant. For vaccine intention, the main effects of message manipulation [ b = 1.64, t (300) = −2.61, P &lt; .005] and the interaction [ b = .34, t (300) = 2.64, P &lt; .005] were significant. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p> Our research found that narrative messages were more persuasive for both information seeking and vaccine intention. But this was true only in the case of individuals whose PBC was low. </jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p> Our findings have critical implications for vaccine promotion research. </jats:p></jats:sec>enCOVID-19 Vaccine IntentionInformation Seeking IntentionPerceived Behavioral ControlNarrative Vs StatisticsExemplification TheoryExperimentPeer Reviewed Journal Article10.1177/08901171221075019