2022/03/05 by Bradley Larsen, Timothy J. Ryan, Larsen, Bradley J. +9
Social Sciences · #Communication and COVID-19 Impact #FOS: Economics and business #General Economics (econ.GN) #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2203.02625
openalex publication_date 2022/03/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report a large-scale randomized controlled trial designed to assess whether the partisan cue of a pro-vaccine message from Donald Trump would induce Americans to get COVID-19 vaccines. Our study involved presenting a 27-second advertisement to millions of U.S. YouTube users in October 2021. Results indicate that the campaign increased the number of vaccines in the average treated county by 103. Spread across 1,014 treated counties, the total effect of the campaign was an estimated increase of 104,036 vaccines. The campaign was cost-effective: with an overall budget of about $100,000, the cost to obtain an additional vaccine was about $1 or less.