To get vaccinated or not? An investigation of the relationship of linguistic assignment of agency and the intention to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine

Multiple Messaging Strategies for Increasing HPV Vaccination Intentions among English- and Spanish-Speaking Parents in the United States and Mexico

“…Respondents who read reminder messages assigning transmission agency to the virus ( HPV can infect your child ) indicated higher intentions to vaccinate their children than others who read messages assigning agency to the child ( your child can get HPV ). This finding is consistent with previous studies demonstrating a persuasive advantage for messages assigning threat agency to HPV and other pathogens such as COVID-19, H1N1, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria [ 11 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 71 ]. It also comports with evolutionary accounts of human fear, suggesting threats are prioritized when perceived as exogenous and autonomous [ 72 ].…”

“…Items for the second, third, and fifth sections were adapted from measures used in prior work on vaccination messaging impact, and items in the fourth were adapted from the Vaccination Confidence Scale [ 45 , 46 ]. Perceived threat severity, self-efficacy, and vaccination confidence have been shown to predict HPV vaccination intention [ 18 , 20 , 22 ] and thus were included to gauge participants’ receptivity to stimulus message content. The two items measuring vaccination intention in Section 5 constitute our formal outcome measures [ 11 , 18 ].…”

“…Patient education materials and vaccination policy arguments about viral threats (COVID-19, H1N1, HPV, influenza, etc.) that consistently assign transmission agency to the virus have been shown to increase perceived health threat severity and vaccination intentions relative to materials assigning transmission agency to humans [ 11 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Consequently, we hypothesized that HPV vaccination reminder text messages assigning transmission agency to the virus would increase parents’ reported perceived viral threat severity and vaccination intentions relative to other messages assigning agency to humans or to a control message with no transmission agency assignment.…”

COVID-19 vaccine intentions in Aotearoa New Zealand: Behaviour, risk perceptions, and collective versus individual motivations

“…Several studies have looked at intentions to receive vaccines for COVID-19 specifically. These studies examine demographic factors such as age and gender ( Faasse & Newby, 2020 ; Karlsson et al, 2021 ; Latkin et al, 2021 ; Schwarzinger et al, 2021 ), behavioural factors such as past vaccine uptake and use of other protective behaviours ( Faasse & Newby, 2020 ; Latkin et al, 2020; Schwarzinger et al, 2021 ), informational factors including information sources ( Faasse & Newby, 2020 ) and trust in scientists or experts ( Faasse & Newby, 2020 ; Freeman et al, 2021 ; Kerr et al, 2021 ), cognitive factors such as outcome expectancy (the belief that the behaviour will lead to the intended or suggested outcome; Anthony et al, 2021 ; Faasse & Newby, 2020 ; Freeman et al, 2021 ); and risk factors such as concern about infection, illness, transmitting to others, and vaccine safety ( Anthony et al, 2021 ; Faasse & Newby, 2020 ; Karlsson et al, 2021 ; Kerr et al, 2021 ; Kwok et al, 2021 ; Motta et al, 2021 ; Schwarzinger et al, 2021 ). Some of this research found significant influences of factors relating to collective motivations ( Freeman et al, 2021 ; Karlsson et al, 2021 ; Kwok et al, 2021 ); a recent study explicitly explored the role of community identification, finding that those who more strongly identified with their community had higher willingness to get the vaccine, via a stronger perceived sense of duty to their community (Wakefield & Khauser, 2021).…”