Sociopolitical and psychological correlates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the United States during summer 2021

Stoler, Justin; Klofstad, Casey A.; Enders, Adam M.; Uscinski, Joseph E.

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115112

Cited by 34 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…This theoretical perspective follows widelyaccepted and well-evidenced models of both health and political belief formation: people's worldviews, ideologies, values, group attachments, personalities, and even occasionally biological and genetic factors--the relatively stable features of our identities and belief systems--are the primary ingredients of beliefs regarding politics, health and medicine, and various forms of CTM [29][30][31]. In other words, beliefs in COVID-19 CTM and pandemic-related behaviors share many underlying (presumably causal) ingredients [32].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

On the relationship between conspiracy theory beliefs, misinformation, and vaccine hesitancy

Enders

Uscinski²,

Klofstad³

et al. 2022

PLoS ONE

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At the time of writing, nearly one hundred published studies demonstrate that beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation are negatively associated with COVID-19 preventive behaviors. These correlational findings are often interpreted as evidence that beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation are exogenous factors that shape human behavior, such as forgoing vaccination. This interpretation has motivated researchers to develop methods for “prebunking,” “debunking,” or otherwise limiting the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation online. However, the robust literatures on conspiracy theory beliefs, health behaviors, and media effects lead us to question whether beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation should be treated as exogenous to vaccine hesitancy and refusal. Employing U.S. survey data (n = 2,065) from July 2021, we show that beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation are not only related to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal, but also strongly associated with the same psychological, social, and political motivations theorized to drive COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal. These findings suggest that beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation might not always be an exogenous cause, but rather a manifestation of the same factors that lead to vaccine hesitancy and refusal. We conclude by encouraging researchers to carefully consider modeling choices and imploring practitioners to refocus on the worldviews, personality traits, and political orientations that underlie both health-related behaviors and beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation.

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

On the relationship between conspiracy theory beliefs, misinformation, and vaccine hesitancy

Enders

Uscinski²,

Klofstad³

et al. 2022

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research conducted in various countries demonstrates that belief in these theories is associated with social factors linked to instrumental and value rationality. These factors include instrumental considerations regarding the credibility of authorities and scientific institutions (Achimescu et al., 2021; Kim & Kim, 2021) and the adherence to specific ideological values (Koon et al., 2021; Stoler et al., 2022). Consequently, a comprehensive analysis of conspiracy theories could greatly benefit from the exploration of both value‐laden and instrumental reasoning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of partisanship and religiosity on conspiracy‐theory beliefs in Turkey

Nefes,

Aksoy

2023

Sociology Compass

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Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? This paper responds to this ever‐significant question by scrutinizing people's belief in conspiracy theories in Turkey. Building on Max Weber's theory of rationalization, it proposes that value‐laden and instrumentally rational predispositions, namely religiosity and partisanship, predict people's beliefs in conspiracy theories. This current study tests this hypothesis by analyzing two nationwide surveys conducted during a period of significant changes in modern Turkish politics: January and July 2013. The findings confirm the hypothesis that people interpret conspiracy theories in line with their instrumental, rational interests and values.

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“…Early identification of narratives of concern- such as those related to the development and effect of the vaccine could be a particular focus area for collaborative efforts. Additionally, all of the three themes we identified as having an effect on vaccine hesitancy in May 2020, are still prevalent online in more recent analyses of online and offline narratives [ 13 , 14 , 49 ]. Given that vaccine hesitancy is still an issue in many countries rolling out booster shots, the relationships identified here, and the relative importance of each of these factors in each country, can be helpful in the development of communication efforts on the narratives that seem to have the greatest effect in that country.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-National Vaccine Concerns and Predictors of Vaccine Hesitancy in Not-Fully Vaccinated Individuals: Findings from USA, Canada, Sweden, and Italy

Piltch-Loeb

Bonetti

et al. 2022

Vaccines

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Vaccine hesitancy is a key contributor to reduced COVID-19 vaccine uptake and remains a threat to COVID-19 mitigation strategies as many countries are rolling out the campaign for booster shots. The goal of our study is to identify and compare the top vaccine concerns in four countries: Canada, Italy, Sweden, and the USA and how these concerns relate to vaccine hesitancy. While most individuals in these countries are now vaccinated, we expect our results to be helpful in guiding vaccination efforts for additional doses, and more in general for other vaccines in the future. We sought to empirically test whether vaccine related concerns followed similar thematic issues in the four countries included in this study, and then to see how these themes related to vaccine hesitancy using data from a cross-sectional survey conducted in May 2021. We applied CFA and created vaccine concern scales for analysis. We then utilized these results in regression-based modeling to determine how concerns related to vaccine hesitancy and whether there were similar or different concerns by country. The results quantitatively highlight that the same vaccine related concerns permeated multiple countries at the same point in time. This implies that COVID-19 vaccination communications could benefit from global collaboration.

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Sociopolitical and psychological correlates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the United States during summer 2021

Cited by 34 publications

References 73 publications

On the relationship between conspiracy theory beliefs, misinformation, and vaccine hesitancy

On the relationship between conspiracy theory beliefs, misinformation, and vaccine hesitancy

The impact of partisanship and religiosity on conspiracy‐theory beliefs in Turkey

Cross-National Vaccine Concerns and Predictors of Vaccine Hesitancy in Not-Fully Vaccinated Individuals: Findings from USA, Canada, Sweden, and Italy

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