The Impact of Information Sources on Covid-19 Knowledge Accumulation and Vaccination Intention

During a global health crisis, people are exposed to vast amounts of information from a variety of sources. Here, we assessed which information sources could increase knowledge about COVID-19 (Study 1) and the COVID-19 vaccines (Study 2). In Study 1, a US census matched sample of 1060 Cloud Research participants rated the accuracy of a set of statements and then were randomly assigned to one of 10 between-subjects conditions of varying sources providing belief-relevant information: a political leader (Trump/Biden), a health authority (Fauci/CDC), an anecdote (Democrat/Republican), a large group of prior participants (Democrats/Republicans/Generic), or no source (Control). Finally, they rated the accuracy of the initial set of statements again. Study 2 involved a replication with a sample of 1876 Cloud Research participants, and focused on COVID-19 vaccine information and vaccination intention. In both studies, we found that participants acquired most knowledge when the source of information was a generic group of people. Surprisingly, knowledge accumulation from the different information sources did not interact with participants’ political affiliation. However, information accumulation interacted with political affiliation in predicting vaccination intention.