Feeling inspired and nostalgic: associations between media context-induced positive emotions and behavioral change among vaccine-hesitant individuals in the late stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose: Campaigns to promote the COVID-19 vaccination messages to vaccine-hesitant consumers in the late stages of the pandemic are often met with resistance. This study aims to explore a way to leverage positive emotions induced from entertainment media consumption to promote vaccination messages to this audience group. Design/methodology/approach: An online experiment was conducted with vaccine-hesitant consumers (N = 409). Participants viewed personally relevant entertainment music videos or mundane videos and vaccinated messages embedded in user-generated comments. Findings: Data revealed that feelings of inspiration and nostalgia induced from entertainment media consumption increased vaccination intentions via increased risk perceptions and reduced anti-vaccination attitudes. Practical implications: Social marketers should consider leveraging the combined effect of entertainment media-induced positive emotions and user-generated comments to motivate behavioral change among vaccine-hesitant individuals in the late stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originality/value: The present study adds to social marketing literature by showing mechanisms that positive emotions induced from entertainment social media consumption might lead to health behavioral change.