Ingroup Favoritism Surrounding COVID-19 Vaccinations in the Hispanic Communities: Experimental Study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Hispanic communities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to elevated health risks and burdens, these populations have faced persistent barriers to accessing accurate, timely information regarding the pandemic’s trajectory, including vaccine-related updates. To address these challenges, it is crucial to examine the conditions under which Hispanics are most likely to seek information about COVID-19 vaccinations. OBJECTIVE Grounded in social identity theory and self-categorization theory, the primary goal of this study is to investigate how ethnic and linguistic cues influence information-seeking preferences related to COVID-19 vaccinations among Hispanic individuals. The first aim is to compare Hispanic and non-Hispanic participants in terms of their preferences for COVID-19 vaccine-related social media pages, in which the ethnicity of individuals shown in the images (Hispanic vs non-Hispanic) and the language in the text (Spanish vs English) vary. The second aim is to identify which combination of ethnic imagery and language in the text is most preferred among Hispanic participants when seeking COVID-19 vaccination information. METHODS A total of 936 participants (Hispanic: n=448; non-Hispanic: n=488) were included in the study. We created experimental social media group pages modeled after Facebook groups, in which the ethnicity of individuals shown in the imagery and the language used in the text were manipulated. A total of 4 conditions were developed: (1) Hispanic imagery with Spanish text, (2) non-Hispanic imagery with Spanish text, (3) Hispanic imagery with English text, and (4) non-Hispanic imagery with English text. Participants were asked to indicate the extent to which they would be willing to seek help from each social media group page, under the assumption that they were looking for information or assistance related to the COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of their actual vaccination status. A between-subjects ANOVA and a one-way repeated-measures ANOVA were conducted to analyze the data. RESULTS The findings indicated that Hispanic participants significantly preferred social media pages featuring Hispanic imagery and Spanish text compared to non-Hispanic participants. Moreover, a page with non-Hispanic imagery and English text was less preferred by Hispanic than by non-Hispanic individuals. Among Hispanic participants, the condition featuring Hispanic imagery and Spanish text emerged as the most favored, particularly when compared to conditions featuring non-Hispanic imagery paired with either Spanish or English text. Notably, there was no significant difference between the preference for the condition with Hispanic imagery and Spanish text and the condition with Hispanic imagery and English text, suggesting that imagery may have a stronger influence than language in shaping preferences. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that incorporating ethnic and language cues that reflect the target audience’s identity can enhance the effectiveness of public health messaging, particularly in efforts to improve information engagement among Hispanic populations.