Psychological impact of COVID-19: Assessing the COVID-19-related anxiety, individual’s resilience and conspiracy beliefs on attitudes to COVID-19 vaccination

Abstract

It has been 2 years since the first outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, and continuous efforts and measures have been exerted and implemented to halt its spread, such as the introduction of vaccination programs. However, as with the consumption of other products and services, some people hold different beliefs, consequently affecting their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination. Thus, vaccine unwillingness and hesitancy remain an enormous concern for many countries. This paper explores the effects of anxiety, individual resilience, and conspiracy beliefs on attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines among the population of Malaysia—with a focus on Muslim individuals. We used survey data from 438 respondents (205 male, 233 female) to assess the research model. To conduct the multi-group analysis, we used partial least square structural equation modeling in SmartPLS 3. The results suggest that anxiety is positively associated with COVID-19 vaccination attitudes, whereas conspiracy beliefs have an inverse effect on vaccination attitudes, while an individual’s resilience is also positively associated with vaccination attitudes. Furthermore, it is found that the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and vaccination attitudes is weakened for an individual with a higher level of resilience. The findings also reveal the differences and similarities between males and females. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to simultaneously explore and demonstrate the effects of COVID-19-related anxiety, conspiracy beliefs and resilience with people’s attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines and to examine the homogeneity of both males and females—especially among Malaysia’s Muslim population—thereby offering a valuable contribution to the literature.

Afraid but misinformed: Conspiracist beliefs cancel the positive influence of fear of COVID-19 on vaccination intentions - Findings from a Romanian sample

“…Although the disease provoked by the new coronavirus is potentially health damaging and even deadly, our findings indicate that the fear generated by these risks fosters the intention to vaccinate only in people who have low adherence to conspiracy theories. The positive influence of fear of COVID-19, associated with the high risk of contracting this disease and to its severity, on vaccination intentions and attitudes has previously found when this factor was analyzed independently (e.g., Bendau et al, 2021 ; Chu and Liu, 2021 ; Lielsvagere-Endele et al, 2022 ; Nguyen et al, 2022 ; Rosli et al, 2022 ). However, our study suggests that conspiracist beliefs on this topic moderate this effect by limiting and even canceling it.…”

Sociodemographic and psychosocial factors associated with vaccine hesitancy – results from a longitudinal study in Singapore

“…A study in Malaysia had similar findings, i.e., individual resilience was significantly associated with vaccine acceptance. 21 …”