Do optimism and moralization predict vaccination? A five-wave longitudinal study.

Abstract

Objective: To examine if personal and comparative optimism, perceived effectiveness, and moralization of vaccination predict people's decision to get vaccinated. Methods: We measured self-reported vaccination decisions in a five-wave longitudinal study (N ≍ 5,000/wave) in Belgium over a six months period (December 2020–May 2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the predictors were demographic factors, personal and comparative optimism for three aspects of COVID-19 (infection, severe disease, good outcome), perceived effectiveness of vaccination, and the extent to which vaccination is being viewed in prosocial terms (altruism, civic spirit) versus as instrumental in one's self-interest (common sense, concern about one's health). Results: The actual availability of vaccines changed people's outlook on vaccination. Marked differences emerged in vaccination decision between linguistic-cultural regions (Flemish Region, Walloon Region, Brussels Capital Region). Personal and comparative optimism predicted vaccination decisions to different extents depending on participants’ age and on whether the optimism was for infection, severe disease, or a good outcome. In older participants, vaccination decision was mostly predicted by personal optimism; in younger participants, it was mostly predicted by comparative optimism. Moralizing vaccination predicted a lower likelihood of a positive vaccination decision, that is, higher vaccine hesitancy or refusal, particularly in older participants. Conclusions: Assessments of risk perception serving to inform vaccination campaigns should differentiate between expectations concerning the risk of infection and expectations concerning the outcome of an infection. Public health messages should address comparative optimism, particularly when targeting younger populations. Contrary to popular belief, moralizing vaccination may reduce the willingness to get vaccinated.

Introduction to the special issue on vaccine hesitancy and refusal.

“…However, these results were heterogeneous; individuals with baseline antivaccine attitudes demonstrated a reduction in willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 after seeing the positively framed messages, suggesting that tailoring this approach should incorporate awareness of baseline vaccine attitudes, a similar finding to prior work concerning messaging for routine childhood vaccination (Nyhan et al, 2014). Delporte et al (2023) conducted a five-wave study in Belgium that focused on measures of optimism as a whole, referred to by the authors as "personal" (e.g., "better things are more likely to happen than worse, in general") and in a "comparative" fashion ("better things are more likely to happen than worse, for me rather than others"). "Personal" optimism was more salient for older respondents who may have a greater perception of individual risk, and "comparative" optimism was more salient for younger respondents.…”

“…The other 11 papers in this special issue present novel research findings across a wide range of aspects of health psychology and vaccination practice. Most of them focus exclusively on COVID-19 (Bogg et al, 2023; Buscemi et al, 2023; Delporte et al, 2023; Eberhardt and Ling, 2023; Husted et al, 2023; Ku et al, 2023; Martin et al, 2023; Preis et al, 2023; Warren et al, 2023), but others concern influenza (Bender et al, 2023; Brumbaugh et al, 2023) and HPV vaccines (Brumbaugh et al, 2023). Six of the research articles (Bogg et al, 2023; Brumbaugh et al, 2023; Buscemi et al, 2023; Martin et al, 2023; Preis et al, 2023; Warren et al, 2023) report on studies conducted in the United States, while two (Eberhardt and Ling, 2023; Husted et al, 2023) were conducted in the United Kingdom, one (Bender et al, 2023) in Germany, one (Delporte et al, 2023) in Belgium, and one (Ku et al, 2023) in South Korea.…”

“…Bender et al (2023) conducted an intervention study in Germany. Delporte et al (2023) assessed the impacts of optimism and moral appeals on vaccine intention. Bender et al (2023) conducted a four-arm randomized study, with presentation of standard information about vaccine side effects versus enhanced messaging using a positively framed message, each for COVID-19 vaccine and influenza vaccine.…”

“…Delporte et al (2023) conducted a five-wave study in Belgium that focused on measures of optimism as a whole, referred to by the authors as “personal” (e.g., “better things are more likely to happen than worse, in general”) and in a “comparative” fashion (“better things are more likely to happen than worse, for me rather than others”). “Personal” optimism was more salient for older respondents who may have a greater perception of individual risk, and “comparative” optimism was more salient for younger respondents.…”

Do health beliefs about COVID‐19 predict morbidity? A longitudinal study

“…shown that moralizing preventive measures against diseases (e.g., vaccination) may reduce rather than enhance people's willingness to comply with them (e.g., Delporte et al, 2023;Kraaijeveld & Jamrozik, 2022). Therefore, more seems to be gained of presenting precautions against COVID-19 as having instrumental (vs. moral) value.…”