Social expectations and government incentives in Malaysia's COVID-19 vaccine uptake

High vaccination rates are integral to reducing infection and severity rates of COVID-19 infections within a community. We examine the role of social expectations in COVID-19 vaccination take-ups and its interaction with potential government actions in Malaysia. We find that individuals' expect...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2022-09, Vol.17 (9), p.e0275010
Main Authors: N Izzatina Abdul Aziz, Sam Flanders, Melati Nungsari
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:High vaccination rates are integral to reducing infection and severity rates of COVID-19 infections within a community. We examine the role of social expectations in COVID-19 vaccination take-ups and its interaction with potential government actions in Malaysia. We find that individuals' expectations of others in their social groups towards vaccination predicts those individuals' vaccination registrations. Using a vignette experiment, we examine the extent of normative expectations in normalizing pro-vaccination behavior beyond an individual's reference group. We find that unless moderated by a high level of public trust, individuals prefer punitive policies as a way to increase vaccination rates in their communities.
ISSN:1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0275010