A Sociolinguistic-enabled Web Application to Develop Precision Health Intervention for African Americans

This pilot study will explore the preliminary efficacy of a colorectal cancer (CRC) screening intervention delivered by virtual health assistants (VHAs). Participants will include 750 African American patients in the US between the ages of 45 and 75 recruited through Qualtrics panels. The main research question is: How does the integration of different levels of dialect density of the linguistic features of African American English (AAE) influence the perceived credibility of a Black VHA. Four types of VHAs will be presented to our patients: a VHA with Standardized American English (SAE) linguistic features, a VHA with a low level of African American English (AAE) linguistic features integrated, a VHA with a high level of African American English (AAE) linguistic features integrated, and a text-only control condition. Survey questions will be used to obtain credibility judgments about VHAs post-interaction.