The Moral Foundations of Vaccine Passports

Abstract

The debate around vaccine passports has been polarising and controversial. Although the measure allows businesses to resume in-person operations and enables transitioning out of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some have expressed concerns about liberty violations and discrimination. Understanding the splintered viewpoints can aid businesses in communicating such measures to employees and consumers. We conceptualise the business implementation of vaccine passports as a moral decision rooted in individual values that influence reasoning and emotional reaction. We surveyed support for vaccine passports on a nationally representative sample in the United Kingdom in 2021: April (n = 349), May (n = 328), and July (n = 311). Drawing on the Moral Foundations Theory—binding (loyalty, authority, and sanctity), individualising (fairness and harm), and liberty values—we find that individualising values are a positive predictor and liberty values a negative predictor of support for passports, suggesting adoption hinges on addressing liberty concerns. Longitudinal analysis examining the trajectory of change in support over time finds that individualising foundations positively predict changes in utilitarian and deontological reasoning over time. In contrast, a fall in anger over time predicts increased support towards vaccine passports. Our study can inform business and policy communication strategies of existing vaccine passports, general vaccine mandates, and similar measures in future pandemics.

When consumer decisions are moral decisions: Moral Foundations Theory and its implications for consumer psychology

“…In years prior to the COVID‐19 pandemic, endorsement of the individualizing foundations did not predict vaccine hesitancy, whereas purity and liberty concerns were significantly associated with a reduced willingness to take vaccines (Amin et al., 2017). In the context of COVID‐19, however, individualizing foundations in fact positively predicted support for vaccine passports (Harjani et al., 2023), while county‐level Covid vaccination rates were negatively predicted by purity concerns and positively predicted by loyalty concerns (Reimer et al., 2022).…”