Predicting willingness to be vaccinated for Covid-19: evidence from New Zealand

Abstract

Governments around the world are seeking to slow the spread of Covid-19 and reduce hospitalisations by encouraging mass vaccinations for Covid-19. The success of this policy depends on most of the population accepting the vaccine and then being vaccinated. Understanding and predicting the motivation of individuals to be vaccinated is, therefore, critical in assessing the likely effectiveness of a mass vaccination programme in slowing the spread of the virus.In this paper we draw on the I3 Response Framework to understand and predict the willingness of New Zealanders to be vaccinated for Covid-19. The Framework differs from most studies predicting willingness to be vaccinated because it is based on the idea that the willingness to adopt a behaviour depends on both involvement (a measure of motivational strength) with the behaviour and attitudes towards the behaviour. We show that predictions of individuals’ willingness to be vaccinated are improved using involvement and attitudes together, compared to attitudes alone. This result has important implications for the implementation of mass vaccination programmes for Covid-19.

Motivation, Intention and Action: Wearing Masks to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19

“…The studies were conducted using the same questionnaire but in different regions of New Zealand. The results in these two studies indicated that, despite strong similarities across regions in behavioural intentions, there were marked dissimilarities in actual behaviour [9]. In particular, while the willingness to act to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was similar across the regions, the wearing of face masks was dramatically different across the regions [9].…”

“…In prior studies [8][9][10][11] we investigated behavioural intentions, and actual behaviour, with respect to measures advocated by government to suppress or eliminate COVID-19 in New Zealand. The central rationale for the I 3 model we use (see Section 3.1 below) is that scarce cognitive attention is allocated variously to novel actions according to the felt relevance of those actions to the needs of the individual.…”

“…In two of the previous studies [8,9] behavioural intentions with respect to wearing face masks, self-isolating and getting tested for COVID-19 were investigated, together with self-reports of actual behaviour with respect to wearing face masks. The studies were conducted using the same questionnaire but in different regions of New Zealand.…”

“…Where, as in this instance, diversity in actual behaviour occurs in a context of shared behavioural intentions with respect to a novel behaviour, it is necessary to identify the cause. First, because, if the claimed integrity of the I 3 model [8,9,11,[20][21][22][23][24], and other models of behavioural intentions [12,13], is to be sustained, it is necessary to be able to identify a plausible and active cause for hesitancy to implement an intention. In a basic sense, behavioural intention is not the sole appropriate policy target if it is not highly, positively correlated with actual behaviour.…”

“…Building on previous research [8][9][10][11], we draw on the social psychological concepts of involvement and attitudes in this paper to predict the willingness of the public in several regions across New Zealand to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by wearing face masks, selfisolating when unwell, and getting tested for COVID-19. We then investigate differences across the regions in the extent to which intentions to wear face masks translated into mask wearing behaviour.…”