Does social influence affect COVID-19 vaccination intention among the unvaccinated?

Conformist social influence is a double-edged sword when it comes to vaccine promotion. On the one hand, social influence may increase vaccine uptake by reassuring the hesitant about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine; on the other hand, people may forgo the cost of vaccination when the maj...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolutionary human sciences 2022-01, Vol.4, p.e32-e32, Article e32
Main Authors: Salali, Gul Deniz, Uysal, Mete Sefa, Bozyel, Gizem, Akpinar, Ege, Aksu, Ayca
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
collectivism
Conformism
Conformity
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 vaccines
cultural evolution
Disease transmission
Experiments
Herd immunity
Influence
Intolerance
Pandemics
psychological reactance
Social networks
vaccine hesitancy
Vaccines
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Conformist social influence is a double-edged sword when it comes to vaccine promotion. On the one hand, social influence may increase vaccine uptake by reassuring the hesitant about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine; on the other hand, people may forgo the cost of vaccination when the majority is already vaccinated – giving rise to a public goods dilemma. Here, we examine whether available information on the percentage of double-vaccinated people affects COVID-19 vaccination intention among unvaccinated people in Turkey. In an online experiment, we divided participants ( n = 1013) into low, intermediate and high social influence conditions, reflecting the government's vaccine promotion messages. We found that social influence did not predict COVID-19 vaccination intention, but psychological reactance and collectivism did. People with higher reactance (intolerance of others telling one what to do and being sceptical of consensus views) had lower vaccination intention, whilst people with higher collectivism (how much a person considers group benefits over individual success) had higher vaccination intention. Our findings suggest that advertising the percentage of double-vaccinated people is not sufficient to trigger a cascade of others getting themselves vaccinated. Diverse promotion strategies reflecting the heterogeneity of individual attitudes could be more effective.
ISSN:2513-843X
2513-843X
DOI:10.1017/ehs.2022.29