Giving effective information to fight COVID-19

Different and often contradicting messages occur in social media about COVID-19. Developing trustworthy communication strategies is critical to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19, yet measuring outcomes fast is a challenge.  In partnership with the Institute of Public Health, this project will survey about 15,000 primary school teachers, online and via smartphone, about their knowledge of COVID-19 and related behaviors and will test which messages work better to induce people to wash their hands and avoid leaving their houses. The researchers will also test if their source matters (i.e. left leaning vs. right leaning newspapers, politicians vs. actors). The project will also use a voluntary (opt-in) GPS tracking app to determine whether individuals are complying with the government mandated guidelines to stay home. The team will begin reporting results to the government within two weeks of the first survey.