Do Message Framing and Source Credibility Matter? : Examining Framed COVID- 19 Prevention Messaging in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the influence of different message framings (utilitarian, deontological, religious, virtue-based message, and God's punishment-based messages) on Saudi Arabians’ beliefs and behavioral intentions related to COVID-19 and the influence of message source (religious advocate, Saudi COVID-19 monitoring committee member, close person, physician, journalist, and social media influencer) on communicating messages in the COVID-19 pandemic context. The between-subject design experiment (n =222) was conducted online due to the Covid-19 restrictions in force at the time of this study and in an attempt to derive a representative sample from the general Saudi population. The results showed that the God’s punishment-based message was less effective than other moral and religious messages, including the non-framed messages, and member of the Saudi COVID-19 monitoring committee, followed by physicians, were believed to be the most effective message sources. Overall, the current research contributes to the knowledge about health and crisis communications in the collectivistic cultural context.