University of Pennsylvania - Department of Psychology
Date Written: January 27, 2021
Abstract
Many Americans fail to get life-saving vaccines each year, and the availability of a vaccine for COVID-19 makes the challenge of encouraging vaccination more urgent than ever. We present a large field experiment (N=47,308) testing 19 nudges delivered to patients via text message and designed to boost adoption of the influenza vaccine. Our findings suggest text messages sent prior to a primary care visit can boost vaccination rates by up to 11%. Overall, interventions performed better when they were (a) framed as reminders to get flu shots that were already reserved for the patient and (b) congruent with the sort of communications patients expected to receive from their healthcare provider (i.e., not surprising, casual, or interactive). Our most potent intervention reminded patients twice to get their flu shot at their upcoming doctor’s appointment and indicated it was reserved for them. This successful script could be used as a template for campaigns to encourage the adoption of life-saving vaccines, including against COVID-19.
Keywords: vaccination, COVID-19, nudge, influenza, field experiment
Milkman, Katherine L. and Patel, Mitesh S. and Gandhi, Linnea and Graci, Heather and Gromet, Dena and Ho, Quoc Dang Hung and Kay, Joseph and Lee, Timothy and Akinola, Modupe and Beshears, John and Bogard, Jonathan and Buttenheim, Alison and Chabris, Christopher and Chapman, Gretchen B. and Choi, James J. and Dai, Hengchen and Fox, Craig R. and Goren, Amir and Hilchey, Matthew and Hmurovic, Jillian and John, Leslie and Karlan, Dean and Kim, Melanie and Laibson, David I. and Lamberton, Cait and Madrian, Brigitte C. and Meyer, Michelle N. and Modanu, Maria and Nam, Jimin and Rogers, Todd and Rondina, Renante and Saccardo, Silvia and Shermohammed, Maheen and Soman, Dilip and Sparks, Jehan and Warren, Caleb and Weber, Megan and Berman, Ron and Evans, Chalanda and Snider, Christopher and Tsukayama, Eli and Van den Bulte, Christophe and Volpp, Kevin and Duckworth, Angela, A Mega-Study of Text-Based Nudges Encouraging Patients to Get Vaccinated at an Upcoming Doctor’s Appointment (January 27, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3780267
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