Vaccination behavior is not homogenous: Role of irrationality and mistrust in the healthcare system
Abstract
Background. Refusing or postponing vaccination is an individual decision that can have serious consequences for personal and public health. These behaviors can be rooted in irrational beliefs that contradict scientific principles or in cognitive biases (errors in judgment and decision-making), or result from mistrust in the healthcare system. We tested the predictiveness of these factors to two categories of vaccination behaviors: self-vaccinating against COVID-19 and postponing/refusing to vaccinate one’s child according to the official immunization schedule.
Methods. In a community sample of Serbian adults (N = 582; 249 reported having children), we measured irrational beliefs (conspiracy beliefs, magical health beliefs, superstitiousness), cognitive biases (illusory correlation, omission bias, naturalness bias), trust in the healthcare system and professionals, health, socioeconomic status, age, gender, and education.
Findings. While 22% of the sample was not COVID-19 vaccinated, ...2% of parents refused, and 15% postponed vaccinating their children. Expectedly, COVID-19 vaccination was predicted by older age (β = .19), poorer health status (β = -.10), lower conspiracy (β = -.14) and magical health beliefs (β = -.20), lower naturalness bias (β = -.18), and higher trust in the healthcare system (β = .15) and professionals (β = .14) (all ps <. 01). However, postponing/refusing vaccinating children was not predicted by an irrational mindset or system mistrust. Younger participants rejected vaccinating their children more often (β = -.25, p < .001).
Discussion. Results suggest that vaccination behavior is heterogeneous and has different roots, implying different intervention strategies are needed to address the different types of vaccine hesitancy.
Keywords:
vaccination behavior / vaccine hesitancy / irrational beliefs / medical mistrust / covid-19Source:
Book of Abrstacts, 38th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, 3-6 September, Portugal, 2024Funding / projects:
- Irrational mindset as a conceptual bridge from psychological dispositions to questionable health practices – REASON4HEALTH
URI
https://2024.ehps.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ehps-2024_abstracts-1.pdfhttp://reff.f.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/6621
Institution/Community
Psihologija / PsychologyTY - CONF AU - Lazarević, Ljiljana AU - Purić, Danka AU - Stanković, Sanda AU - Lazić, Aleksandra AU - Žeželj, Iris Lav PY - 2024 UR - https://2024.ehps.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ehps-2024_abstracts-1.pdf UR - http://reff.f.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/6621 AB - Background. Refusing or postponing vaccination is an individual decision that can have serious consequences for personal and public health. These behaviors can be rooted in irrational beliefs that contradict scientific principles or in cognitive biases (errors in judgment and decision-making), or result from mistrust in the healthcare system. We tested the predictiveness of these factors to two categories of vaccination behaviors: self-vaccinating against COVID-19 and postponing/refusing to vaccinate one’s child according to the official immunization schedule. Methods. In a community sample of Serbian adults (N = 582; 249 reported having children), we measured irrational beliefs (conspiracy beliefs, magical health beliefs, superstitiousness), cognitive biases (illusory correlation, omission bias, naturalness bias), trust in the healthcare system and professionals, health, socioeconomic status, age, gender, and education. Findings. While 22% of the sample was not COVID-19 vaccinated, 2% of parents refused, and 15% postponed vaccinating their children. Expectedly, COVID-19 vaccination was predicted by older age (β = .19), poorer health status (β = -.10), lower conspiracy (β = -.14) and magical health beliefs (β = -.20), lower naturalness bias (β = -.18), and higher trust in the healthcare system (β = .15) and professionals (β = .14) (all ps <. 01). However, postponing/refusing vaccinating children was not predicted by an irrational mindset or system mistrust. Younger participants rejected vaccinating their children more often (β = -.25, p < .001). Discussion. Results suggest that vaccination behavior is heterogeneous and has different roots, implying different intervention strategies are needed to address the different types of vaccine hesitancy. C3 - Book of Abrstacts, 38th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, 3-6 September, Portugal T1 - Vaccination behavior is not homogenous: Role of irrationality and mistrust in the healthcare system UR - https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_6621 ER -
@conference{ author = "Lazarević, Ljiljana and Purić, Danka and Stanković, Sanda and Lazić, Aleksandra and Žeželj, Iris Lav", year = "2024", abstract = "Background. Refusing or postponing vaccination is an individual decision that can have serious consequences for personal and public health. These behaviors can be rooted in irrational beliefs that contradict scientific principles or in cognitive biases (errors in judgment and decision-making), or result from mistrust in the healthcare system. We tested the predictiveness of these factors to two categories of vaccination behaviors: self-vaccinating against COVID-19 and postponing/refusing to vaccinate one’s child according to the official immunization schedule. Methods. In a community sample of Serbian adults (N = 582; 249 reported having children), we measured irrational beliefs (conspiracy beliefs, magical health beliefs, superstitiousness), cognitive biases (illusory correlation, omission bias, naturalness bias), trust in the healthcare system and professionals, health, socioeconomic status, age, gender, and education. Findings. While 22% of the sample was not COVID-19 vaccinated, 2% of parents refused, and 15% postponed vaccinating their children. Expectedly, COVID-19 vaccination was predicted by older age (β = .19), poorer health status (β = -.10), lower conspiracy (β = -.14) and magical health beliefs (β = -.20), lower naturalness bias (β = -.18), and higher trust in the healthcare system (β = .15) and professionals (β = .14) (all ps <. 01). However, postponing/refusing vaccinating children was not predicted by an irrational mindset or system mistrust. Younger participants rejected vaccinating their children more often (β = -.25, p < .001). Discussion. Results suggest that vaccination behavior is heterogeneous and has different roots, implying different intervention strategies are needed to address the different types of vaccine hesitancy.", journal = "Book of Abrstacts, 38th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, 3-6 September, Portugal", title = "Vaccination behavior is not homogenous: Role of irrationality and mistrust in the healthcare system", url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_6621" }
Lazarević, L., Purić, D., Stanković, S., Lazić, A.,& Žeželj, I. L.. (2024). Vaccination behavior is not homogenous: Role of irrationality and mistrust in the healthcare system. in Book of Abrstacts, 38th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, 3-6 September, Portugal. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_6621
Lazarević L, Purić D, Stanković S, Lazić A, Žeželj IL. Vaccination behavior is not homogenous: Role of irrationality and mistrust in the healthcare system. in Book of Abrstacts, 38th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, 3-6 September, Portugal. 2024;. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_6621 .
Lazarević, Ljiljana, Purić, Danka, Stanković, Sanda, Lazić, Aleksandra, Žeželj, Iris Lav, "Vaccination behavior is not homogenous: Role of irrationality and mistrust in the healthcare system" in Book of Abrstacts, 38th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society, 3-6 September, Portugal (2024), https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_6621 .