Understanding how objective quantities are translated into subjective evaluations has long been of interest to social scientists, medical professionals, and policymakers with an interest in how ...people process and act on quantitative information. The theory of decision by sampling proposes a comparative procedure: Values seem larger or smaller based on how they rank in a comparison set, the
But what values are included in this decision sample? We identify and test four mechanistic accounts, each suggesting that how previously encountered attribute values are processed determines whether they linger in the sample to guide the subjective interpretation, and thus the influence, of newly encountered values. Testing our ideas through studies of loss aversion, delay discounting, and vaccine hesitancy, we find strongest support for one account: Quantities need to be subjectively evaluated-rather than merely encountered-for them to enter the decision sample, alter the subjective interpretation of other values, and then guide decision making. Discussion focuses on how the present findings inform understanding of the nature of the decision sample and identify new research directions for the longstanding question of how comparison standards influence decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Vaccination hesitancy-the reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated-is a leading global health threat (World Health Organization, 2019). It is imperative to identify the prevalence of vaccination ...hesitancy for SARS-CoV2 in order to understand the scope of the problem and to identify its motivational roots in order to proactively prepare to address the problem when a vaccine eventually becomes available.
To identify (1) the prevalence of vaccination hesitancy for a SARS-CoV2 vaccine, (2) the motivational roots of this hesitancy, and (3) the most promising incentives for improving the likelihood of vaccination uptake when a vaccine does become available.
A cross-sectional sample of 3,674 American and Canadian adults assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020.
Measures of vaccination intention (i.e., "If a vaccine for COVID-19 was available, would you get vaccinated?"), attitudes toward vaccines in general and specific to SARS-CoV2 using the Vaccination Attitudes Examination Scale, and incentives for getting vaccinated for those who reported they would not get vaccinated.
Many American (25%) and Canadian (20%) respondents said that they would not get vaccinated against SARS-CoV2 if a vaccine was available. Non-adherence rates of this magnitude would make it difficult or impossible to achieve herd immunity. Vaccine rejection was most strongly correlated with mistrust of vaccine benefit, and also correlated with worry about unforeseen future effects, concerns about commercial profiteering from pharmaceutical companies, and preferences for natural immunity. When asked about incentives for getting vaccinated, respondents were most likely to report that evidence for rigorous testing and safety of the vaccine were of greatest importance.
Vaccination hesitancy is a major looming problem for COVID-19. To improve vaccine uptake, it is imperative that the vaccine is demonstrated to the public to be rigorously tested and not perceived as rushed or premature in its dissemination.
Vaccinations and anti-vaccination attitudes have reclaimed the spotlight as a crucial health behavior because of the recent surge in outbreaks of preventable diseases. One factor that may be ...contributing to this trend is the outspoken role that anti-vaccination celebrities play. The main purpose of the present study was to determine whether anti-vaccination attitudes are related to celebrity admiration. We hypothesized a positive correlation between anti-vaccination attitudes and celebrity interest and admiration. We also hypothesized that persons who are very concerned about the commercial profiteering of vaccinations will also tend to believe in conspiracies. Participants (N = 320, 40% female, mean age = 36.28, SD = 11.32) completed the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS) and the Vaccination Attitudes Examination Scale (VAX) through an online survey management system. We found significant positive associations between anti-vaccination attitudes and celebrity admiration and interest. However, celebrity admiration and interest did not correlate with mistrust of vaccine benefits, as measured by a subdomain of the VAX. Additionally, we found that concerns about commercial profiteering from vaccines correlated with beliefs in conspiracy theories. Our study suggests a new way of approaching people's anti-vaccination attitudes that may be used to effectively educate the public about the importance of vaccinations.
•Women are associated with higher risk perception of COVID-19 relative to men.•Women indicate more adherence to non-pharmaceutical public health measures but more hesitancy towards the COVID-19 ...vaccine.•Men demonstrate lower adherence to preventive public health measures but greater COVID-19 vaccination acceptance.
Pandemics present challenges for individuals as they face uncertainties, risks, and decisions which influence their attitudes towards public health interventions. This study investigates gender differences in attitudes towards COVID-19 preventive measures and vaccination intentions in the United States, focusing on the link between risk perception and attitudes towards public health guidelines.
We utilised data from the Understanding America Study, a nationally representative longitudinal survey of U.S. adults from March 2020 to March 2022 to assess how gender differences in health risk perception were associated with attitudes, behaviours, and vaccination intentions, while also evaluating how these gender effects changed over time. We used multilevel logistic regression models to adjust for age, level of education, employment status and income.
Women had a higher risk perception of COVID-19 and exhibited greater compliance with preventive measures compared to men. Women also showed higher agreement with COVID-19 restraining public policy measures. However, this contrasted with attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine, where men displayed more positive views and a higher intention to receive the vaccine. This gender effect was persistent over time.
This seemingly paradoxical outcome suggests that while women’s heightened risk perception relative to men’s leads to greater adherence to non-pharmaceutical COVID-19 preventative public health interventions, it may also result in more negative views towards the novel COVID-19 vaccine. Understanding the complex interactions between risk perception, behaviour, and gender can inform policymakers and health authorities to tailor interventions that address the diverse needs of the population.
This paper examines vaccination as a descriptive social norm in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. Using a large-scale survey experiment in Turkey, we first elicit respondents’ vaccination ...attitudes and show that political affiliation is a strong predictor of it. We then use economic games to measure the extent of outgroup discrimination induced by respondents’ attitudes towards vaccination. We find that while both pro- and anti-vaxxers discriminate against each other substantially, the pro-vaxxers discriminate more than the anti-vaxxers do. This polarization intensifies when pro- and anti-vaxxers perceive a political difference between them. Using randomized informational treatments, we show that a reminder or priming of external threats, appealing to a broadly shared social identity, might mitigate such outgroup discrimination.
The aim of the experimental study was to verify the reduction of Covid‐19 unfounded beliefs through arguments in favor of vaccination. The sample includes 720 participants recruited by Qualtrics (50% ...women, age: M = 38.8, SD = 10.90). The participants were equally and randomly divided into three groups. The control group was given the task of reading a neutral text about Norway. The first experimental group was provided with a debunking text that corrected popular misinformation and unfounded beliefs about vaccination against polio and vaccination against Covid‐19. The second experimental group read the same text as the first, with two additional paragraphs addressing the motives and errors in the thinking of unfounded belief spreaders. The results confirmed that exposing the participants to arguments for vaccination reduces the endorsement of Covid‐19 unfounded beliefs and increases the willingness to be vaccinated against Covid‐19 disease.
Objective: Strengthening of antivaccination movements in recent decades has coincided with unprecedented increases in the incidence of some communicable diseases. Many intervention programs work from ...a deficit model of science communication, presuming that vaccination skeptics lack the ability to access or understand evidence. However, interventions focusing on evidence and the debunking of vaccine-related myths have proven to be either nonproductive or counterproductive. Working from a motivated reasoning perspective, we examine the psychological factors that might motivate people to reject scientific consensus around vaccination. To assist with international generalizability, we examine this question in 24 countries. Methods: We sampled 5,323 participants in 24 countries, and measured their antivaccination attitudes. We also measured their belief in conspiracy theories, reactance (the tendency for people to have a low tolerance for impingements on their freedoms), disgust sensitivity toward blood and needles, and individualistic/hierarchical worldviews (i.e., people's beliefs about how much control society should have over individuals, and whether hierarchies are desirable). Results: In order of magnitude, antivaccination attitudes were highest among those who (a) were high in conspiratorial thinking, (b) were high in reactance, (c) reported high levels of disgust toward blood and needles, and (d) had strong individualistic/hierarchical worldviews. In contrast, demographic variables (including education) accounted for nonsignificant or trivial levels of variance. Conclusions: These data help identify the "attitude roots" that may motivate and sustain vaccine skepticism. In so doing, they help shed light on why repetition of evidence can be nonproductive, and suggest communication solutions to that problem.
Background
Anti-vaccination attitudes are important predictors of vaccination behavior. Existing measures of vaccination attitudes focus on specific age groups and/or particular vaccines; a more ...comprehensive measure would facilitate comparisons across studies.
Purpose
The aim of this study was to develop a short measure of general vaccination attitudes and establish its reliability and validity.
Methods
Two studies were conducted using the
VAX
scale. For Study 1, participants were 409 individuals (53% female), with a mean age of 34.5 years. For Study 2, participants were 92 individuals (67% female) with a mean age of 28.6. Participants answered paper-and-pencil questions about their attitudes toward vaccines, prior and expected-future vaccination behaviors, perceived sensitivity to medicines, online behavior, and basic demographic information. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted with correlations and
t
tests then used to assess the scale’s reliability and validity.
Results
Four distinct but correlated vaccine attitudes were identified: (1) mistrust of vaccine benefit, (2) worries about unforeseen future effects, (3) concerns about commercial profiteering, and (4) preference for natural immunity. These factors were significantly related to prior vaccination behavior, future intentions to obtain recommended vaccinations, perceived sensitivity to medicines, and the tendency to obtain health information online.
Conclusions
The
VAX
scale provides an efficient method for identifying those with vaccination resistance, and the four subscales enable a more nuanced understanding of the nature of those views. It should be noted, however, that the strong correlations amongst the four subscales suggest that interventions should target all four attitude areas, and it remains to be seen whether differential emphasis across the four areas is warranted.
COVID-19 has disproportionately burdened impoverished minority communities. This study recruited an age- and gender-diverse community sample of 541 Black adults in a United States Midwestern city ...with large racial health disparities, with the aim of examining factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination. All participants completed measures assessing their COVID-19 vaccination status (unvaccinated, received primary vaccination, or received primary plus booster vaccination) as well as demographic characteristics, socioeconomic factors, health and health system factors, and health behavior theory constructs related to vaccination. In this predominantly low-income sample, 55% of participants had received primary COVID-19 vaccination and 31% of the sample had received a booster dose. Multiple regression analyses established that having primary vaccination was significantly predicted by older age, political identification as Democrat, education beyond high school, barriers to accessing health care, as well as higher trust of vaccine benefits, less preference for natural immunity, stronger social norms favoring vaccination, and perceiving higher levels of collective responsibility. Surprisingly, higher global medical mistrust and difficulty with healthcare access were associated with vaccination. The model explained 76% of the variance in primary COVID-19 vaccination. Having received a COVID-19 booster was predicted by older age, previous COVID-19 infection, higher trust in vaccine benefits, and fewer worries about unforeseen future effects of vaccination. Study findings identified factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine uptake in racial minority communities, and support the benefits of interventions that harness social network supports for vaccination, address community vaccine concerns, and appeal to collective responsibility to promote vaccine uptake.
Measuring the 7Cs of Vaccination Readiness Geiger, Mattis; Rees, Franziska; Lilleholt, Lau ...
European journal of psychological assessment,
07/2022, Letnik:
38, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Although vaccines are among the most effective
interventions used in fighting diseases, vaccination readiness varies
substantially among individuals. Vaccination readiness is defined as a set of
...components that increase or decrease AN individual's likelihood of
getting vaccinated. Building on earlier work that distinguished five components
of vaccination readiness (confidence, complacency, constraints, calculation, and
collective responsibility), we revised the questionnaire used to measure these
components to improve its psychometric properties, specifically criterion
validity. In doing so, we also developed two new components of vaccination
readiness: compliance and conspiracy. Compliance is the tendency to support
monitoring to control adherence to regulations; conspiracy is the tendency to
endorse conspiratorial beliefs about vaccination. The newly introduced 7C scale
was initially piloted in a cascade of serial cross-sectional studies and then
validated with N = 681 participants from the
COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring in Denmark. We report a bifactor measurement model,
convergent validity with other questionnaires, and an explanation of 85%
variance in the willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19. We also present a
7-item short version of the scale. The instrument is publicly available in
several languages (www.vaccination-readiness.com), and we seek collaboration to
provide translations of our instrument into other languages.
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