Willingness to Vaccinate against COVID-19: The Role of Assumptions on the World’s Orderliness and Positivity

Abstract

This research investigates why people refuse the COVID-19 vaccine despite medical argumentation and dangerousCOVID-19 consequences. As the global pandemic development is beyond each person's control, we predicted that two basic assumptions about the world, namely its order and positivity, would play an important role. Two studies on the Polish population took place in December 2020 and January 2021. The most interesting finding was that in both studies, belief in world orderliness negatively moderated, i.e., hampered, the positive relationship between belief in the world's positivity and willingness to vaccinate. It seems that the COVID-19 vaccination might evoke a feeling of disruption in biological and social natural functioning. If we generalize, any idea undermining our habits and shared beliefs is the more challenged and opposed we have strong faith in the world as an ordered and predictable reality. Believing in the world's positivity may even aggregate this attitude. In discussing these results, we propose how to introduce new ideas or innovative products to consumers.

Do Optimists Like Vaccines? The Effect of Perceived Vaccine Novelty and Beliefs in the World’s Positivity and Orderliness on the Attitudes toward COVID-19 Vaccinations—The Case of European Young Adults

“…Our results are inconclusive in terms of the influence of belief in the world's orderliness on vaccine attitudes. In our dataset, the effects of a belief in orderliness on vaccine attitudes were positive (see Figure 3), while in our previous research [16], neutral or slightly negative effects occurred. Perhaps, the positive effect of belief in orderliness, visible in the current study, occurred because that belief might lead to viewing the world's order as more extensive, thus embracing vaccines.…”

“…The positive effect of belief in the world's positivity on perceived vaccination effectiveness is weaker when consumer belief in the world's orderliness is higher. SUPPORTED Provides evidence for the negative orderliness × positivity interaction effect on vaccine attitudes [16], involving the perceived vaccine effectiveness as a mediator and other behavioral outcomes (i.e., the willingness to pay and vaccination advocacy).…”

“…The negative interaction effect of orderliness/positivity beliefs on perceived vaccine effectiveness (H1) is stronger for consumers perceiving vaccines as more novel. SUPPORTED Provides further evidence for the negative orderliness × positivity interaction effect on vaccine attitudes [16], involving the perceived vaccine novelty as a moderator.…”

“…Besides direct arguments about vaccines, such as vaccine effectiveness or safety, that prevail in social media discussions [ 9 ] and people’s declarations [ 10 ], attitudes toward vaccination may be shaped by people’s worldviews [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Therefore, considering such worldviews in vaccination advertising may enable marketers and policymakers to promote vaccines, at least partially bypassing the dispute over vaccines themselves.…”

“…People differ in how strong these two beliefs are [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Our previous study [ 16 ] suggests that the belief in positivity may increase vaccination intent, but only if the belief in world orderliness is not firm. We speculated that this negative orderliness × positivity interaction effect results from viewing vaccines as standing beyond (outside) the world’s order.…”