Correction: How does collectivism help deal with perceived vaccine artificiality? The case of COVID-19 vaccination intent in European young adults.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300814.].

How does collectivism help deal with perceived vaccine artificiality? The case of COVID-19 vaccination intent in European young adults.

Vaccine "unnaturalness" (artificiality) is one of the major anti-vaccine arguments raised in public debate. Therefore, health communication should rebut unnaturalness arguments and be cautious when emphasizing human intervention (e.g., advanced vaccine technology), which may entail perceiving vaccines as artificial. Understanding how the relationship between perceived vaccine artificiality and vaccination intent differs across social groups can help enforce the above health communication efforts by focusing them on specific audiences. The objective of the current paper is to assess the moderating role of a particular socio-cultural factor-vertical collectivism (reflecting the orientation on social hierarchy)-in the relationship between perceived vaccine artificiality and vaccination intent. It is proposed that vertical collectivism diminishes the negative effect of perceived vaccine artificiality. Two studies with European young adults measured COVID-19 vaccination intent and vertical collectivism. Study 1 (N = 418) was correlational, measuring perceived vaccine artificiality. The data were analyzed with a moderation model. Study 2 (N = 203) was experimental, manipulating perceived vaccine artificiality by human-intervention appeal (i.e., emphasizing human intervention in vaccine development and operation). The data were analyzed with moderation and moderated mediation models. Study 1 demonstrated that the effect of perceived vaccine artificiality on vaccination intent was less negative when the level of vertical collectivism was higher. In Study 2, with higher levels of vertical collectivism, the effect of human-intervention appeal on vaccination intent was less negative, and the indirect effect through perceived vaccine artificiality turned even positive. Those results contribute to the fields of perceived naturalness/artificiality, vaccination behavior, health communication, and cultural dimensions theory, providing empirical evidence that the negative effect of perceived vaccine artificiality on vaccination intent is diminished by vertical collectivism, as proposed. Health practitioners are guided on how to consider different levels of collectivism of their audiences while referring to vaccine artificiality in their communication. Specifically, it is suggested that rebutting "unnaturalness" anti-vaccine arguments should be focused on people low in vertical collectivism, and messages featuring human intervention (e.g., a vaccine's technological advancement) should be targeted at people high in vertical collectivism.

Online recommenders' anthropomorphism improves user response to hedonic and benefit-based product appeals through the recommenders' perceived ability to learn.

Previous studies reveal the limited effectiveness of benefit-based and hedonic-based product recommendations provided by online recommenders, and recommender anthropomorphism is considered a remedy. This paper aims to investigate the positive effect of anthropomorphism by involving the online recommender's perceived ability to learn as a mediator. Based on schema congruity theory, perceived benefit/hedonic appeals appropriateness is considered a dependent variable. In Study 1, subtle anthropomorphic cues within an online recommender had a positive effect on perceived benefit-appeals appropriateness through the perceived ability to learn. Study 2 demonstrated the positive relationship between perceived anthropomorphism and perceived hedonic-appeal appropriateness, with the mediating role of the perceived ability to learn. The results advance the knowledge about consumer response to online recommenders from the perspective of anthropomorphism and schema congruity theory. Marketers and consumer organizations are advised on how to deal with online recommender systems providing benefit and hedonic appeals.

The Effects of Expressing Empathy/Autonomy Support Using a COVID-19 Vaccination Chatbot: Experimental Study in a Sample of Belgian Adults.

BACKGROUND: Chatbots are increasingly used to support COVID-19 vaccination programs. Their persuasiveness may depend on the conversation-related context. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the moderating role of the conversation quality and chatbot expertise cues in the effects of expressing empathy/autonomy support using COVID-19 vaccination chatbots. METHODS: This experiment with 196 Dutch-speaking adults living in Belgium, who engaged in a conversation with a chatbot providing vaccination information, used a 2 (empathy/autonomy support expression: present vs absent) × 2 (chatbot expertise cues: expert endorser vs layperson endorser) between-subject design. Chatbot conversation quality was assessed through actual conversation logs. Perceived user autonomy (PUA), chatbot patronage intention (CPI), and vaccination intention shift (VIS) were measured after the conversation, coded from 1 to 5 (PUA, CPI) and from -5 to 5 (VIS). RESULTS: There was a negative interaction effect of chatbot empathy/autonomy support expression and conversation fallback (CF; the percentage of chatbot answers "I do not understand" in a conversation) on PUA (PROCESS macro, model 1, B=-3.358, SE 1.235, t186=2.718, P=.007). Specifically, empathy/autonomy support expression had a more negative effect on PUA when the CF was higher (conditional effect of empathy/autonomy support expression at the CF level of +1SD: B=-.405, SE 0.158, t186=2.564, P=.011; conditional effects nonsignificant for the mean level: B=-0.103, SE 0.113, t186=0.914, P=.36; conditional effects nonsignificant for the -1SD level: B=0.031, SE=0.123, t186=0.252, P=.80). Moreover, an indirect effect of empathy/autonomy support expression on CPI via PUA was more negative when CF was higher (PROCESS macro, model 7, 5000 bootstrap samples, moderated mediation index=-3.676, BootSE 1.614, 95% CI -6.697 to -0.102; conditional indirect effect at the CF level of +1SD: B=-0.443, BootSE 0.202, 95% CI -0.809 to -0.005; conditional indirect effects nonsignificant for the mean level: B=-0.113, BootSE 0.124, 95% CI -0.346 to 0.137; conditional indirect effects nonsignificant for the -1SD level: B=0.034, BootSE 0.132, 95% CI -0.224 to 0.305). Indirect effects of empathy/autonomy support expression on VIS via PUA were marginally more negative when CF was higher. No effects of chatbot expertise cues were found. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that expressing empathy/autonomy support using a chatbot may harm its evaluation and persuasiveness when the chatbot fails to answer its users' questions. The paper adds to the literature on vaccination chatbots by exploring the conditional effects of chatbot empathy/autonomy support expression. The results will guide policy makers and chatbot developers dealing with vaccination promotion in designing the way chatbots express their empathy and support for user autonomy.

There is no smoke without fire: How frequency information and the experience attribution make negative online restaurant reviews more harmful.

The paper proposes and evidences that a more frequent mentioning of a service issue in an online restaurant review makes the readers blame the restaurant more for the issue. This inside attribution, in turn, may worsen the restaurant evaluation. Two experiments (Study 1 and 2) examine this mechanism using different stimuli. In both experiments, consumers exposed to high (vs. low) mentioning-frequency reviews attributed the issue more inside the restaurant and evaluated the restaurant lower. Additionally, the paper considers the role of consumer analytical processing (Study 1) and perceived review helpfulness (Study 2) in the relationships between mentioning frequency and issue attribution. The paper extends the existing literature by applying the attribution theory to the context of frequency information in online reviews. The results guide marketers dealing with negative online reviews by suggesting the way to deal with high-mentioning-frequency negative reviews.

Do Optimists Like Vaccines? The Effect of Perceived Vaccine Novelty and Beliefs in the World's Positivity and Orderliness on the Attitudes toward COVID-19 Vaccinations-The Case of European Young Adults.

The public debate over COVID-19 vaccinations tends to focus on vaccine-related arguments, such as their effectiveness and safety. However, the characteristics of a person's worldview, such as beliefs about the world's positivity and orderliness, may also shape attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccinations. These relationships were investigated using schema incongruity theory. The degree of the vaccine's incongruence with the world's order schema existing in people's minds was represented by perceived vaccine novelty. Accordingly, the results of an online survey among European young adults (N = 435) indicate that perceived vaccine novelty negatively affects behavioral outcomes (vaccination intent, willingness to pay for vaccinations, and vaccination advocacy). Moreover, there occurred a negative interaction effect of positivity and orderliness beliefs on behavioral outcomes. Specifically, an effect of positivity was more positive when people perceived the world as less ordered. Furthermore, this interaction effect was more negative when perceived vaccine novelty was higher. A mediating role of perceived vaccine effectiveness was demonstrated for the above relationships. The results extend the existing literature on people's worldviews into the domain of vaccine attitudes, and provide new insights on the role of perceived vaccine novelty. For vaccination policymakers and marketers, the paper suggests how to promote vaccinations with consideration of orderliness/positivity beliefs and vaccine novelty perception.