Protect ya Grandma! The Effects of Students' Epistemic Beliefs and Prosocial Values on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions

Abstract

The present study investigates epistemic beliefs (beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing) and prosocial values as predictors of COVID-19 vaccination intentions. As a first hypothesis, we posit that beliefs in justification by authority will positively relate to vaccination intentions. Second, we expect a positive relationship between prosocial values and vaccination intentions. Third, we hypothesize that beliefs in justification by authority moderate the relationship between prosocial values and vaccination intentions, so that the positive correlation between prosocial values and vaccination intentions becomes stronger with increasing beliefs in justification by authority. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of N = 314 German university students, a group with rather high mobility, who, when vaccinated, will increase the chance of attaining herd immunity. Hypotheses were tested using correlational and multiple regression analyses. Results revealed a highly significant positive relationship between justification by authority and vaccination intentions, whereas both hypotheses that included prosocial values did not yield significant results. Additional exploratory analyses revealed that the relationship between justification by authority and vaccination intentions was mediated by beliefs in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines. Furthermore, significant negative relationships were found between personal justification and vaccination intentions as well as between justification by multiple sources and vaccination intentions. These results highlight the crucial role of science and public health communication in fostering vaccination intentions regarding COVID-19.

Effects of COVID-19 on Multilingual Communication

“…The results of this study are consistent with the findings of the study by Rosman et al (2021) that the credibility of public health experts, scientists, and doctors who confirm the safety and efficacy of vaccines greatly contribute to the success of vaccination.…”

“…The results of our study also confirmed the conclusions by Rosman et al (2021) that, for European countries, doubts about the safety of a vaccine expressed by official authorities significantly reduce the willingness of the population to get vaccinated. Thus, in March 2021, the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine was questioned; several countries suspended its use.…”

“…At the same time, politicians and public health experts were quick to reassure the public that all COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective (Goldstein et al, 2020). Meanwhile, this no longer helped in terms of changing the attitude of the population, which began to increasingly lose faith in state institutions; a similar trend is intensifying, for example, in Germany since the beginning of 2021 (Betsch et al, 2021;Rosman et al, 2021).…”

“…For Australians, refusal to get vaccinated is determined by the belief that the COVID-19 threat is exaggerated by inadequate medical literacy and under education (Dodd et al, 2021). North American respondents prefer to rely on natural immunity; the lack of confidence in the benefits of the vaccine is determined by fears of unintended consequences in the future and unwillingness to contribute to the commercial profit of pharmaceutical companies (Rosman et al, 2021). Results of German studies show that, since April 2020, when the intention to get vaccinated was estimated at about 79%, a steady decline has been observed throughout 2020.…”

“…Vaccinations, testing, masking requirements, non-drug interventions are compromised. In such a situation, the importance of effective crisis communication increases (Rosman et al, 2021).…”