This study examined the relationship between religious beliefs and protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. A study was conducted with 551 Polish participants. According to structural equation modeling analysis, being a believer is positively associated with belief in an afterlife, which, like death anxiety, but independent of it, is associated with perceiving COVID-19 as a non-severe disease, which is associated with low fear of COVID-19, and disregard for protective behaviors. Thus, our results allowed us to distinguish belief in God and the afterlife from death anxiety as two independent determinants of compliance with COVID-19 protective behaviors.

Direct persuasion (providing arguments) is usually a less effective influence technique than self-persuasion (self-creation of arguments). As most young adults are unafraid to contract COVID-19, self-persuasion focused on protecting the health of others may be an effective method of increasing vaccination rates in this population. Thus, empathy seems to be a crucial factor affecting vaccination intentions. We conducted two experiments using the theory of planned behavior. Study 1 (N = 366) compared the effectiveness of self-persuasion targeted at others' health versus personal health and direct persuasion in encouraging COVID-19 vaccination intention. Results indicate that among young adults, self-persuasion targeted at others' health (compared to other forms of persuasion) has an indirect effect on vaccination intention through utility and social norms beliefs. Moreover, as empathy increases, utility, social norms, and control beliefs increase, which is associated with a greater COVID-19 vaccination intention. Study 2 (N = 375) investigated the applicability of self-persuasion in health communication through a poster framed as an open-ended question. We found that the poster with self-persuasion targeted at others’ health, enhanced vaccination intention, compared with a direct persuasion poster. Together, our findings demonstrate the potential of self-persuasion targeted at others' health in increasing COVID-19 vaccination uptake among young adults.

BackgroundWe aimed to identify factors that affected COVID-19 vaccination intention within the framework of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). These were variables associated with the TPB, sex, age, perceived severity of COVID-19, knowing someone who was afflicted with COVID-19, and psychological reactance, which was an individual difference crucial for planning strategies to encourage people to get vaccinated.MethodsA total of 551 Polish people answered an online research panel between December 8 and 14, 2020.ResultsWe used structural equation modeling and showed that attitude (utility beliefs) toward COVID-19 vaccination was the strongest predictor, followed by social norms beliefs, and perceived behavioral control. Older age and knowing someone afflicted with COVID-19 led to higher vaccination intention by perceiving higher severity of COVID-19 and higher levels of all TPB components. Being female and having higher trait reactance negatively affected COVID-19 vaccination intention through lower levels of all TPB components. ConclusionsThe results indicate that COVID-19 vaccination intention is directly determined by all TPB components and affected by sex, age, COVID-19-related variables, and reactance. Our results contribute to the scientific pursuit of encouraging people to take the COVID-19 vaccine by suggesting changeable determinants that could be targeted in health campaigns.

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