The moral source of collective irrationality during COVID-19 vaccination campaigns

Abstract

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the reviewers for their valuable feedback and insights on our manuscript. Their comments and suggestions have greatly improved the quality and clarity of our work. We appreciate their time and effort in carefully reviewing our paper and providing constructive criticism that has helped to strengthen it. We are grateful for the opportunity to learn from their expertise and experience. Thank you again for your invaluable contribution to our research.

When belief becomes research: conspiracist communities on the social web

“…Concurrent with these views is a hardened stance against scientific expertise, especially those who mandate or recommend COVID-19 vaccinations. These stances have been well-documented in the scholarly literature (Larson, 2020;Voinea et al, 2023). And while many of the fears and associated beliefs around vaccination are warranted, especially in marginalized communities with a distrust of authorities (Stein et al, 2021;Bilewicz, 2022;Cortina and Rottinghaus, 2022;Fredericks et al, 2022), conspiracy ideation also plays an outsized role (Mylan and Hardman, 2021;Enders et al, 2022;Farhart et al, 2022;Seddig et al, 2022).…”

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“…The COVID-19 pandemic also raises the question of the search for rational strategies of social responsibility that could be effective in opposite to irrational ones: "The moralization of COVID-19 risk mitigation measures contributed to the polarization of groups along moral values, which ultimately led to the emergence of collective irrational behaviors. Collective irrationality arises from groups explicitly or implicitly endorsing values that ultimately harm both themselves and those around" (Voinea et al, 2023).…”

Vacunación y escepticismo: un análisis sobre la desconfianza en la campaña de vacunación del COVID 19 en Ecuador en Twitter

“…Sobre este último elemento, las convicciones que tienen las personas sobre lo que es prioridad o valores innegociables, puede generar la polarización social y, a la vez, una desconfianza en el sistema no basada únicamente en la información. Como indican Voinea et al (2023), "el nivel de conocimiento no predice de por sí solo escepticismo ante las campañas de vacunación", sino que las creencias individuales sobre lo que es el interés colectivo influye quizás hasta más que la información en sí. Por ejemplo, la actitud de una persona sobre la importancia de libertad de elección individual podría ser motivo para que un individuo se posicionara en rechazo a las vacunas, si entiende que estas están siendo impuestas, aunque no de manera formal, pero sí de manera coercitiva sobre la población.…”