Jab my arm, not my morality: Perceived moral reproach as a barrier to COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Vaccinating the public against COVID-19 is critical for pandemic recovery, yet a large proportion of people remain unwilling to get vaccinated. Beyond known factors like perceived vaccine safety or COVID-19 risk, an overlooked sentiment contributing to vaccine hesitancy may rest in moral cognition. Specifically, we theorize that a factor fueling hesitancy is perceived moral reproach : the feeling, among unvaccinated people, that vaccinated people are judging them as immoral. Through a highly powered, preregistered study of unvaccinated U.S. adults (N = 832), we found that greater perceived moral reproach independently predicted stronger refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19, over and above other relevant variables. Of 18 predictors tested, perceived moral reproach was the fifth strongest—stronger than perceived risk of COVID-19, underlying health conditions status, and trust in scientists. These findings suggest that considering the intersections of morality and upward social comparison may help to explain vaccine hesitancy. • Many unvaccinated people perceive moral reproach from vaccinated people. • Greater perceived moral reproach predicts more refusal to get vaccinated. • Moral psychology may support vaccine uptake efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]