Background:
Health education through didactic outreach can enhance uptake of recommended illness screenings, including those related to COVID-19 infection and immunity. Communicator congruency – in which the characteristics of a health educator match those of an intended education recipient – has long been proffered as a strategy to enhance the effectiveness of health behavior didactics, and to potentially address disparities. However, there are surprisingly few empirical tests of the communicator congruency hypothesis in the health behavior literature, including COVID-19 related screenings.

Objective:
This NCI-funded “SeroNet” study sought to consider the impact of race and gender communicator congruency on receptivity to engaging in SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing.

Methods:
White American (female n=93, male n=94) and African American(female n=90, male n=78) adults viewed an animated video didactic about SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing, including potential use-cases and limitations. Participants were randomly assigned to view this information as presented by an African American or White American male or female narrator. We measured receptivity to participating in SARS-CoV-2 antibody screening using a theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework that included screening attitudes, normative beliefs, perceived control, and intentions. We also measured activation of racism-related concern when considering antibody screening.

Results:
A series of factorial ANOVAs revealed that communicator characteristics had no influence on TPB measures of receptivity to SARS-CoV-2 antibody screening among White Americans or African Americans. However, a significant 3-way (participant race x communicator race x communicator gender) interaction was obtained for racism-related concern among African Americans. There was no effect of communicator characteristics on racism-related concern among African American women. Among African American men, racism-related concern was highest with an African American male communicator and lowest with an African American female communicator.

Conclusion:
We found no evidence that communicator congruency enhanced receptivity towards SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing. However, communicator race and gender intersected to affect racism-related concern among African Americans. Findings illuminate a critical need for studies to evaluate whether and how communicator congruency influences health behavior cognition and decision-making.