We're very grateful: moral emotions, role models, and trust predict vaccine uptake intent in India

Abstract

This study investigated determinants of the willingness to get vaccinated in India and examined the relationship between engagement in preventive behaviours and vaccine uptake intent. A large-scale online survey covering aspects of COVID-19 preventive behaviours, vaccination status, moral emotions, trust in others, role models, and socio-demographics was used. A total of 953 Indians participated in the survey between May and June 2021, of which 770 contained valid data on vaccination status. Past preventive health behaviours (PHBs) such as avoiding social gatherings, higher interpersonal trust, and moral emotions were robustly associated with the willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine. Results also showed that unvaccinated individuals were less likely to follow other PHBs, like wearing a mask; past COVID-19 infection status was associated with similar lower adherence to PHBs. Given the strong associations between positive moral emotions, like gratitude, and vaccine uptake intent (especially in the unvaccinated subsample), targeted communication interventions can boost uptake intent, and subsequently vaccine uptake, in jurisdictions with low vaccination rates.

Do you trust the rumors? Examining the determinants of health‐related misinformation in India

“…The condemning moral emotions of contempt, anger, and disgust and the self‐conscious moral emotions of shame, embarrassment, and guilt predicted an increase in BCI. This ties in with the findings of Tagat and Kapoor (2023) emphasizing the influence of negative emotions such as contempt along with positive emotions in predicting preventive health behaviors during the pandemic. Although the extant literature suggests that negative mood states tend to increase skepticism, with the reverse being true of positive moods (Forgas, 2019), there exists an overemphasis on the role of anxiety (Grzesiak‐Feldman, 2013), uncertainty (van Prooijen & Jostmann, 2013), and control (van Prooijen & Douglas, 2017), with limited focus on its interplay with health‐related conspiracies (Šrol et al, 2021).…”

“…This showed that individuals with greater negative moods were more likely to engage in analytical thinking, making them more skeptical of fake news, while the opposite was true of individuals with more positive moods (Forgas, 2019). A recent study from India also highlighted that moral emotions, both positive and negative, were robust predictors of willingness to get vaccinated, thereby drawing attention to the pivotal role of moral emotions in preventive health behaviors (Tagat & Kapoor, 2023). Thus, emotions have contributed to faulty risk perception (Sjöberg, 2007) and decision‐making (Naqvi et al, 2006), especially in relation to preventive health behaviors in the context of the pandemic (Ticku et al, 2021).…”

“…Prior scholarship has suggested relationships between beliefs in health‐related conspiratorial information and conspiratorial thinking (Kroke & Ruthig, 2022), political ideology (van Prooijen et al, 2015), bullshit receptivity (Pennycook et al, 2015), moral emotions (Ticku et al, 2021), and trust in institutions (Kalichman et al, 2021). Specific to the Indian context, Tagat and Kapoor (2023) found that moral emotions like gratitude, role model effects, and trust in others were associated with COVID‐19 vaccine uptake – a topic that has been associated with various rumors and conspiracy theories in the Indian subcontinent (Islam et al, 2021). We aim to illuminate the aforementioned relationships in India given its large population density, lower literacy, disparities in wealth and healthcare accessibility, and preferences for alternative medicines and home remedies (Mallick, 2021).…”

Tracking collective emotions in 16 countries during COVID-19: a novel methodology for identifying major emotional events using Twitter

“…The spread of the disease had an unprecedented impact on life globally and was marked by almost daily changes to public advisories in most countries. Lockdowns and restrictions on civil liberties affected the work and financial circumstances of people across the world (Bell and Blanchflower, 2020;Brewer and Gardiner, 2020;Nicola et al, 2020) and altered social norms and everyday lives (Alon et al, 2020;Dryhurst et al, 2020;Haleem et al, 2020;Nivette et al, 2020;Tagat and Kapoor, 2020;van der Westhuizen et al, 2020). More than any other new infectious diseases of the recent past, the rapid spread of COVID-19 was a cause of tremendous anxiety, alarm, and uncertainty (Goodwin et al, 2011;Mayor et al, 2013;Idoiaga Mondragon et al, 2017) around the world, and a number of studies have noted the pandemic to be an extremely emotional event (Andrade, 2020;Galea et al, 2020;Groarke et al, 2020).…”

Who do we trust? Differences in types of trust and beliefs in conspiracy theories between vaccinated and unvaccinated Europeans across 17 European countries

“…Trust in people around and in politicians and government increases vaccination uptakes (Thornton, 2022) and decreases vaccine hesitancy (Lalot et al, 2022). Although in the case of close others, people sometimes may feel more comfortable not to fully adhere to health containment behaviors, because they trust their own family members (Stefaniak et al, 2022), more generally interpersonal trust towards people as members of a community and towards politicians that govern the communities as an essential part of democratic governance increases vaccine uptakes (Bollyky et al, 2023;Devine et al, 2023;Tagat & Kapoor, 2023). Beyond trust towards other people and politicians/government, vaccine uptakes were also positively predicted by trust towards institutions and organizations, such as the World Health Organization, worldwide (Chen et al, 2022;De Freitas et al, 2021), as well as trust towards health professionals (Hara et al, 2021), scientists and the health system generally (Bajos et al, 2022).…”