The influence of political ideology and trust on willingness to vaccinate

Abstract

In light of the increasing refusal of some parents to vaccinate children, public health strategies have focused on increasing knowledge and awareness based on a “knowledge-deficit” approach. However, decisions about vaccination are based on more than mere knowledge of risks, costs, and benefits. Individual decision making about vaccinating involves many other factors including those related to emotion, culture, religion, and socio-political context. In this paper, we use a nationally representative internet survey in the U.S. to investigate socio-political characteristics to assess attitudes about vaccination. In particular, we consider how political ideology and trust affect opinions about vaccinations for flu, pertussis, and measles. Our findings demonstrate that ideology has a direct effect on vaccine attitudes. In particular, conservative respondents are less likely to express pro-vaccination beliefs than other individuals. Furthermore, ideology also has an indirect effect on immunization propensity. The ideology variable predicts an indicator capturing trust in government medical experts, which in turn helps to explain individual-level variation with regards to attitudes about vaccine choice.

Demographic factors and trust in different news sources

“…This finding is consistent with research by the Pew Research Center (2017c), which found that liberals tend to place more trust in science magazines than moderates and conservatives and were also less likely to assert that scientists overstate their research findings' implications. This finding is also consistent with a broader trend toward distrust in various forms of expertise, particularly among conservatives (Baumgaertner, Carlisle, & Justwan, 2018). Thus, this paper helps to reinforce the finding that trust is eroding in experts, particularly among conservatives but also among moderates (or, from another perspective, is perhaps remaining irrationally high among liberals).…”

Willingness to Vaccinate (WTV) and Willingness to Pay (WTP) for Vaccination Against Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) in Mali

“…Decisions for vaccination, whether human or livestock, can often be more associated with religious and spiritual reasons, personal opinions, safety worries and additional information, beyond any knowledge of risks, costs, and benefits (10,11).…”

Studying convergent evolution to relate genotype to behavioral phenotype

“…As recipients of taxpayer funds, scientists are obligated to convey their research findings to the public in a way that communicates the value of basic research and within a framework where the public are stakeholders in this new knowledge. This is even more important in current times, where public opinion can be contrary to scientific evidence, such as climate change (Leiserowitz et al, 2013), childhood vaccinations (Baumgaertner et al, 2018) and genetically modified foods (Malyska et al, 2016). Programs that broaden the impact of research are required of some funding agencies, like the National Science Foundation in the USA.…”