From the perspective of doctor–patient communication, this research used multiple methods combined natural language processing (NLP), a cross-sectional survey and an online experiment to investigated ...how risk perception influenced people’s vaccination intention.
In Study 1, we used Python to crawl 335,045 comments about COVID-19 vaccine published in a social media platform Sina Weibo (equivalent of Twitter in China) from 31 December 2020 to 31 December 2021. Text analysis and sentiment analysis was used to examine how vaccination intention, as measured by linguistic features from the LIWC dictionary, changed with individuals' perceptions of pandemic risk. In Study 2, we adopted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey to further test the relation of risk perception, vaccination intention, trust in physicians, and perceived medical recommendations in a Chinese sample (n = 386). In Study 3, we conducted an online experiment where we recruited 127 participants with high trust in physicians and 127 participants with low trust, and subsequently randomly allocated them into one of three conditions: control, rational recommendation, or perceptual recommendation.
Text and sentiment analysis revealed that the use of negative words towards COVID-19 vaccine had a significant decrease at high (vs. low) risk perception level time (Study 1). Trust in physicians mediated the effect of risk perception on vaccination intention and this effect was reinforced for participants with low (vs. high) level of perceived medical recommendation (Study 2), especially for the rational (vs. perceptual) recommendation condition (Study 3).
Risk perception increased vaccination intention through the mediating effect of trust in physicians and the moderating effect of perceived medical recommendations. Rational (vs. perceptual) recommendation is more effective in increasing intention to get vaccinated in people with low trust in physicians.
Today, we witness the progress toward global COVID-19 vaccinations organized by countries worldwide. Experts say a mass vaccination plan is the only effective antidote against the spread of ...SARS-COV-2. However, a part of the world population refuses vaccination. The present study aimed to understand the impact of some individual variables on the intention to get vaccinated. Through a serial mediation model, we tested the influence of fear of COVID-19 on the intention to get vaccinated and the serial mediating effect of existential anxiety and conspiracy beliefs. Via a cross-sectional design this research was conducted with the participation of 223 French adults (Female: 69.5%; Male: 30.5%; Mage = 30.26, SD = 13.24; range: 18–75 years) who responded to an online survey. The results showed a positive relationship between fear of COVID-19 and intention to get vaccinated; however, when this fear was associated with high levels of existential anxiety through conspiracy beliefs, the intention to get vaccinated decreased. Our findings were in line with Terror Management Health Model, which states that, in facing health threats, humans may strive to reduce their own perceived vulnerability not only by engaging in healthy behaviors but also denying or avoiding death anxiety, as anti-vaxxers do.
•As a proximal defense, fear of COVID-19 increases intention to get vaccinated.•Fear of COVID-19 increases existential anxiety.•Existential anxiety increases conspiracy beliefs.•Conspiracy beliefs increase intention to get vaccinated.•Existential anxiety and conspiracy beliefs mediate the relation between fear of COVID-19 and intention to get vaccinated.
Before the pandemic, one of the phenomena that attracted significant attention to scholars in different fields of knowledge was fake news. This phenomenon is considered misleading elements within ...news content or a social context. This definition also considers false information, mainly published and distributed through the internet. In this way, this phenomenon has been essential to understanding social adaptation processes to the new conditions in the context of the pandemic and post-pandemic. This adaptation process has required the vaccination of the world population, mainly to deal with the spread of the Covid-19 virus. So, this research analyzes the moderating effect of fake news on the relationship between behavioral factors (moral standards, environmental concern, and health consciousness) and the Intention to be vaccinated. Information was collected from 530 undergraduate students, and an experiment was used to test the relationship. Participants were invited to the system laboratory to analyze the factors that determine vaccination when consumers are influenced by fake news about vaccines, such as Sinovac. The results show that behavioral factors, such as moral norms and environmental concerns, and health consciousness positively influence vaccination intention. Regarding the moderating effects of fake news, moral norms and environmental concerns had a strong influence; vaccination intentions decreased when their influence was low. There was no sustainable difference between participants who read fake or true news for trustworthy news.
PDF
