COVID-19 vaccine skeptics are persuaded by pro-vaccine expert consensus messaging.

Abstract

To further understand how to combat COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy, we examined the effects of pro-vaccine expert consensus messaging on lay attitudes about vaccine safety and intention to get a COVID-19 vaccine. We surveyed 729 unvaccinated individuals from four countries in the early stages of the pandemic and 472 unvaccinated individuals from two countries after 2 years of the pandemic. We found belief of vaccine safety strongly correlated with intention to vaccinate in the first sample and less strongly in the second. We also found that consensus messaging improved attitudes toward vaccination even for participants who did not believe the vaccine is safe nor intended to get it. The persuasiveness of expert consensus was unaffected by exposing participants' lack of knowledge about vaccines. We conclude that highlighting expert consensus may be a way to increase support toward COVID-19 vaccination in those hesitant or skeptical. Public Significance StatementUnvaccinated individuals are persuaded by consensus information that public health experts believe the vaccine is safe to administer to humans or that the experts intend to get vaccinated (Study 1, early pandemic) or that they got vaccinated (Study 2, late pandemic). The positive shift in attitude toward vaccination is modest but suggests that some individuals will be more willing to get vaccinated if consensus information on the safety and administration of the vaccine is communicated.

Strong correlational but no causal evidence on the link between the perception of scientific consensus and support for vaccination

“…This might speak to the different effects of consensus messaging given the context and the novelty of the issue. Findings from Białek et al [65] (in contrast to ours) could indicate that consensus messaging is more effective in the early stages of a crisis before attitudes have crystalized, at a time when the public is largely confused or uncertain. Alternatively, it might be related to vaccine scarcity at the initial stages of the roll-out.…”

“…Furthermore, the paper by Białek and colleagues [ 65 ], which includes a Polish sub-sample, is of special interest here. According to the authors, communicating consensus yields a small positive effect among people with low and medium priors, but the effect is non-significant among people with high priors.…”

The uncertainty-dissuasion model of reactance inhibition.

“…G. Young et al, 2022). Similarly, studies show that social influence emanating from expert sources (i.e., scientific consensus) can decrease reactance among reactant individuals (i.e., vaccine skeptics, see Białek et al, 2023).…”