Conservative-liberal mindset as a driver of COVID-19 vaccination behavior

Abstract

Despite evidence showing that beliefs and values associated with conservative ideology are important predictors of vaccination against COVID-19, none of the previous studies examined if they contribute to specific vaccination choices and preferences in the context of different COVID-19 vaccines available. The present study examines the role of conservatism-liberalism, conceptualized as a relatively stable mindset in predicting the broad spectrum of COVID-19 vaccine-related behaviors above and beyond sociodemographics – vaccination status and specific vaccine choices and preferences. The study was conducted on a sample representative of the Serbian population (N = 1000), whose citizens could freely choose which COVID-19 vaccine they wanted to receive. The first principal component extracted from self-placement on the social axis of political orientation (1–extremely left-wing; 7–extremely right-wing), religiosity (1–not religious at all, 5–very religious), and Openness subscale of the BHI (4 items) was used as the measure of conservatism-liberalism. Participants reported the number of doses and specific COVID-19 vaccines they received for each dose, as well as reasons for their choice. Unvaccinated individuals reported which vaccine against COVID-19 they would receive in case of mandatory vaccination or if they eventually decided to get vaccinated. A series of hierarchical binary logistic regressions showed that conservatism-liberalism negatively predicts vaccination status (B = -.369, p < .01) and significantly differentiates between vaccine-hesitant, single/two-times vaccinated, and booster-dose vaccine recipients, with the latter being more liberal than both former groups (p-values < .05). Moreover, conservative individuals proved to be more likely to receive the Sinopharm (B = .282, p < .05) – a traditional whole-virus vaccine, while liberal individuals were more likely to receive one of the innovative western vaccine options – Pfizer/BioNTech (B = -.213, p < .05) or Oxford/AstraZeneca (B = -.684, p < .01). Sputnik V proved to be the only vaccination option unrelated to conservatism-liberalism. Conservatism remained a remarkably stable predictor of booster-dose vaccine selections, despite vaccine shifts after the first two doses (Sinopharm B = .304, p < .05; Pfizer/BioNTech B = -.331, p < .05). The same pattern of results was observed for relations between conservatism-liberalism and vaccine preferences in a subsample of unvaccinated individuals (Sinopharm B = .448, p < .01; Pfizer/BioNTech B = -.345, p < .05). The results suggest that basic ideological beliefs impact people’s health-related choices and readiness to adopt targeted health-related behavior.