Political network composition predicts vaccination attitudes

The Social Side of Immunization: The Influence of Personal Social Networks on COVID-19 Vaccination in Romania

“…Vaccines in general and COVID-19 vaccines in particular are heavily politicized issues (Facciani et al 2023). Populist parties have endorsed conspiracy theories related to the pandemic and the vaccines, thus spreading distrust in vaccines and vaccination (Kennedy 2019;Eberl et al 2021).…”

“…Social contagion theory identifies social networks as major drivers of people's attitudes and behaviors. Vaccination studies adopting this perspective have shown that belonging to social networks comprised of more vaccine supporters make people more likely to vaccinate, while being a member of social networks comprised of more unvaccinated or skeptical people decreases self-and children vaccination (Facciani et al 2023;Konstantinou et al 2021). These findings pertain to various types of vaccines.…”

“…Influences exerted by family and friends were found to be stronger than those exerted by health experts and politicians (Konstantinou et al 2021). However, research on COVID-19 vaccination attitudes and vaccine uptake paid very limited attention to personal social networks as providers of information and influence (Hao/Shao 2022;Facciani et al 2023). When their role is considered, results indicate that people who have higher shares of family members and close friends vaccinated are significantly more likely to be vaccinated themselves.…”

“…While at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic scholars from medical fields were the most significant scientific contributors to research concerning the causes and effects of the pandemic, it soon became clear that social scientists should also lend their expertise to these investigations. People's hesitancy or outright refusal to vaccinate were analyzed in media and communication studies concerned with the effects of disinformation and increased polarization of opinions (Loomba et al 2021;Romer et al 2022;Jiang et al 2021;Milani et al 2020;Facciani et al 2023), social behavior studies concerned with the decrease in the public's trust in authorities, traditional media channels, and science (Jennings et al 2021;Viskupic et al 2022;Seddig et al 2022). Distrust in public authorities, media, and scientific knowledge came to be seen as the root of people's reluctance to * Data collection for this article was supported by Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu & Hasso Plattner Foundation research action LBUS-RRC-2020-01.…”

“…Some studies also added social norms, understood as people's belief that their relevant others would approve of a behavior, and moral concerns regarding vaccination as an individual contribution to a public crisis (Xiao/Wong 2020;Winter et al 2022;Coffie et al 2022;Bernados/Ocampo 2022). However, there is still very limited inquiry on the role played by personal social networks in shaping people's beliefs about the pandemic and the vaccines, as well as on their decision to receive or refuse the vaccine (Konstantinou et al 2021;Hao/Shao 2022;Facciani et al 2023). Yet, we know that people do not take decisions in isolation.…”