1. The willingness to vaccinate increases when vaccination protects others who have low responsibility for not being vaccinated
- Author
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Böhm, Robert, Meier, Nicolas W., Groß, Marina, Korn, Lars, and Betsch, Cornelia
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Vaccination -- Social aspects -- Research ,Social responsibility -- Health aspects ,Psychology and mental health - Abstract
Vaccination provides direct protection for the vaccinating individual and indirect protection for other, unvaccinated individuals via herd immunity. Still, some people do not get vaccinated-either because they cannot (e.g., due to health conditions) or they don't want to (e.g., due to vaccine hesitancy). We investigate whether non-vaccinators' level of responsibility for not being vaccinated affects individuals' motivation to vaccinate and, thus, to indirectly protect non-vaccinators. In Study 1 (N = 101), the intention to vaccinate increased (Cohen's d = 0.99) when non-vaccinators were described as willing but unable to get vaccinated (low responsibility) compared to when they were able but unwilling to get vaccinated (high responsibility). Study 2 (N = 297) replicated this finding with regard to vaccination behavior in an interactive vaccination (I-Vax) game (OR = 2.38). Additionally, knowing about non-vaccinators' low responsibility also increased the willingness to vaccinate compared to when there was no information on non-vaccinators' level of responsibility. Amplified levels of social welfare concerns in the case of non-vaccinators' low responsibility mediated the latter effect. This finding informs effective communication strategies for improving the vaccination rates., Author(s): Robert Böhm [sup.1] , Nicolas W. Meier [sup.1] , Marina Groß [sup.1] , Lars Korn [sup.2] [sup.3] , Cornelia Betsch [sup.2] [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) 0000 0001 0728 696X, [...]
- Published
- 2019
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