People are more willing to get a COVID-19 vaccination when they know how many other people in their community plan to get one, researchers report.

Public health messaging that touts the accurate percentage of people who intend to receive vaccines is more effective than a campaign focused on the dangers of refusing vaccination.

That’s according to a pair of new research papers that make use of a longitudinal study about COVID behavior around the world—one of the largest academic social science surveys ever conducted.

The survey assessed people’s knowledge about COVID-19, their beliefs about and use of preventive behavior, and what they believe about others’ behavior. The survey found that people severely underestimate vaccine uptake in their communities.

Correcting those mistaken beliefs has major benefits.

“Our study shows that accurate information about what most other people are doing can substantially increase intentions to accept a COVID-19 vaccine,” says Avinash Collis, assistant professor of information, risk, and operations management in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin and coauthor of the two papers.

Read the full article about vaccine information at Futurity .