Purpose: This study tested the relative efficacy of a culturally tailored dramatic narrative promoting COVID-19 vaccination in changing attitudes and behavioral intent among unvaccinated Latinas compared to a nonnarrative control containing similar information.
Design: A pretest-posttest experimental study with unvaccinated Latinas randomly assigned to watch either a dramatic narrative featuring Latina characters countering prevalent myths about COVID-19 vaccines or a nonnarrative film containing similar information (control condition).
Setting: The experiment was hosted online with the films embedded in the survey.
Participants: Three-hundred-ninety adult Latinas living in the United States (mean age = 33.4 years; SD = 11.2) who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 despite being eligible. At pretest, 57.7% were hesitant and 42.3% were resistant (refusing) to get vaccinated.
Measures: Self-reported measures of engagement with the film, COVID-19 vaccine attitudes, and intent to get vaccinated within 30 days at pretest and posttest.
Results: Resistant women were significantly more engaged in the dramatic narrative than the nonnarrative control film (P = .03). Being engaged in a film predicted more positive post-viewing attitudes toward the vaccine (b = .28; P < .001) and higher intent to get vaccinated (b = 2.34, P < .001).
Conclusion: Using culturally tailored stories to promote healthy behaviors such as vaccination can be an effective way of reaching resistant audiences.
Keywords: COVID-19; culturally-tailored; latina; narrative persuasion; vaccine hesitancy.