Keeping Safe versus Staying Healthy: The Effect of Regulatory Fit on Social Distancing

Some states’ COVID-19 social distancing directives spotlight the goal of health promotion (that is, staying healthy), whereas others underscore illness prevention (that is, keeping safe). Regulatory fit theory holds that persuasiveness is influenced by how well the framing of a message resonates with fundamental motivations that influence recipients’ behavior. People who are motivated to approach desirable outcomes generally respond best to health messages having a promotion frame, whereas people who are motivated to avoid undesirable outcomes respond best to health messages having a prevention frame. In the research presented in this article, we show that the effectiveness of COVID-19-related directives is influenced by the fit between promotion or prevention framing and the recipients’ identity—whether they view themselves as independent actors or as part of a larger community. We found that an appeal that highlighted health promotion and benefits to the individual (as in “what you can do to help you stay healthy”) or one that highlighted disease prevention and protection of society (as in “what you can do to keep America safe”) led to greater intent to practice social distancing than did appeals using other pairings of framing and identity, particularly in people who were not already practicing rigorous social distancing. The findings suggest that policymakers should consider regulatory fit—and specifically, the pairings described above—when designing public health communications relating to COVID-19 and other directives.