Trust in science, social consensus and vaccine confidence

Sturgis, Patrick; Brunton‐Smith, Ian; Jackson, Jonathan

doi:10.1038/s41562-021-01115-7

Cited by 159 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Therefore, it is likely that the low vaccine acceptance rates in certain regions, like the Middle East, are driven by high levels of conspiratorial thinking (Sallam et al, 2021;Zonis & Joseph, 1994). Moreover, although a recent study found that a societal consensus on trust in science reflects country-level vaccine confidence (Sturgis et al, 2021), our findings suggest that positive perceptions of science alone cannot explain the cross-cultural variation in vaccine attitudes. One reason may be that people's belief in science (how much they think science can help humans attain knowledge or understand the universe) may not always reflect their scientific literacy or analytical thinking.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 62%

“…An additional factor that has been demonstrated to affect vaccine attitudes is beliefs about science and scientists. Countries with a stronger consensus in trust in science and scientists demonstrate an overall higher confidence in vaccines (Sturgis, Brunton-Smith, & Jackson, 2021). Greater trust in scientists is also associated with lower susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation, which is linked to vaccine acceptance (Roozenbeek et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Why Some Hesitate More: Cross-Cultural Variation in Conspiracy Beliefs, Belief in Science, and Vaccine Attitudes

Salalι

Uysal

2021

Preprint

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BackgroundCountries differ in their levels of vaccine hesitancy (a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines), trust in vaccines, and acceptance of new vaccines. In this paper, we examine the factors contributing to the cross-cultural variation in vaccine attitudes, measured by levels of 1) general vaccine hesitancy, 2) trust in vaccines, and 3) COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.MethodsWe examined the relative effect of conspiracy mentality, belief in COVID-19 conspiracies, and belief in science on the above-mentioned vaccine attitudes in the UK (n= 1533), US (n= 1550), and Turkey (n= 1567) through a quota-sampled online survey to match the population for age, gender, ethnicity, and education level.ResultsWe found that belief in COVID-19 conspiracies and conspiracy mentality were the strongest predictors of general vaccine hesitancy across all three countries. Belief in science had the largest positive effect on general vaccine trust and COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Although participants in Turkey demonstrated the lowest level of vaccine trust, their belief in science score was significantly higher than participants in the US, suggesting that belief in science cannot explain the cross-cultural variation in vaccine trust. The mean levels of conspiracy mentality and agreement with COVID-19 conspiracies were consistent with the country-level differences in general and COVID-19 vaccine attitudes. Demographic variables did not predict vaccine attitudes as much as belief in conspiracies and science.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that cross-cultural variation in vaccine hesitancy, vaccine trust, and COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates are mainly driven by differences in the prevalence of conspiratorial thinking across countries.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 62%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Some Hesitate More: Cross-Cultural Variation in Conspiracy Beliefs, Belief in Science, and Vaccine Attitudes

Salalι

Uysal

2021

Preprint

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“…While in preventive behavior the effect of trust in science was mainly through lower endorsement of epistemically RUNNING TITLE: SCIENCE UNDERSTANDING AND HEALTH BEHAVIOR suspect beliefs, in case of vaccination it had also the direct effect on intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Similarly, Sturgis et al (2021) found that not only trust in science predicts vaccine confidence at the individual level, but also at the societal level. Moreover, their results showed that in countries with a high level of trust in science and scientists, the positive correlation between trust in science and vaccine confidence is stronger than in countries with lower levels of social trust in science.…”

Section: Dissecting Scientific Understanding: Differential Roles Of Scientific Reasoning and Trust In Sciencementioning

confidence: 90%

With the little help of science understanding: Examining the direct and indirect role of scientific reasoning and trust in science in normative health behaviour during pandemic

Cavojova¹,

Šrol²,

Eb³

2021

Preprint

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This paper focuses on the science understanding (scientific reasoning and trust in science) and analytic thinking and their role in: 1) having less conspiracy and pseudoscientific beliefs about COVID-19, and 2) behavioral intentions in line with scientific consensus (i.e. following evidence-based guidelines and vaccination intentions). We examined these direct and indirect effect of science understanding on normative health behavior in a representative sample of Slovak population (N = 1024). The results showed more support for the indirect path: people who understand science better had generally less epistemically suspect beliefs and as a consequence, tended to behave more in line with evidence-based guidelines and were more likely to get vaccinated. Neither scientific reasoning nor trust in science predicted avoidance of preventive measures directly, but analytic thinking correlated positively with avoiding preventive measures. The strongest predictor of epistemically suspect beliefs was trust in science, which also directly predicted the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Thus, it seems that reasoning about which experts or sources to believe (second-order scientific reasoning) has become even more important than directly evaluating original evidence (first-order scientific reasoning).

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“…Previous research has revealed that factors associated with scientific knowledge are linked with COVID-19 vaccine attitudes (e.g., Petravić et al, 2021;Robertson et al, 2021;Sturgis et al, 2021). Educational levels were associated with COVID-19 vaccine refusal/hesitancy (Petravić et al, 2021;Robertson et al, 2021;Schwarzinger et al, 2021).…”

Section: Factors Associated With Covid-19 Vaccine Attitudesmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Those with higher (vs. lower) educational levels tend to be less hesitant to COVID-19 vaccinations (Petravić et al, 2021;Robertson et al, 2021;Schwarzinger et al, 2021). Furthermore, it has been shown that psychological factors such as trust in the vaccine safety (Karlsson et al, 2021), trust in science (Sturgis et al, 2021), and perceived vaccine safety (Karlsson et al, 2021) are positively associated with vaccination intentions or confidence about vaccination. Additionally, cognitive factors including higher analytical reasoning skills (Murphy et al, 2021), higher scientific reasoning skills (ability to understand statistical information such as "causation vs. correlation") (Čavojová et al, 2020), and higher cognitive functions (measured by diverse cognitive tests including verbal declarative memory) (Batty et al, 2021) were associated with positive attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination.…”

Section: Factors Associated With Covid-19 Vaccine Attitudesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific Literacy Linked to Attitudes Toward COVID-19 Vaccinations: A Pre-Registered Study

2021

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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which began in early 2020, is a global public health crisis. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, it is necessary to promote vaccine administration and preventive behaviors (e.g., mask, handwashing, social distancing). However, some people have negative attitudes toward vaccine administration and preventive behaviors. Based on the information-deficit model, the present study investigated how scientific literacy and perceived understanding of COVID-19 are associated with attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccinations and preventive behaviors. The findings demonstrated that both scientific literacy and perceived understanding of COVID-19 vaccines were positively associated with attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally, perceived understanding of COVID-19 preventive behaviors (but not scientific literacy) was positively associated with attitudes toward/practice of COVID-19 preventive behaviors. Collectively, our findings revealed the role of cognitive factors in preventing the global public health crisis and demonstrated the roles of objective and subjective knowledge on attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccinations and preventive behaviors.

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Trust in science, social consensus and vaccine confidence

Cited by 159 publications

References 29 publications

Why Some Hesitate More: Cross-Cultural Variation in Conspiracy Beliefs, Belief in Science, and Vaccine Attitudes

Why Some Hesitate More: Cross-Cultural Variation in Conspiracy Beliefs, Belief in Science, and Vaccine Attitudes

With the little help of science understanding: Examining the direct and indirect role of scientific reasoning and trust in science in normative health behaviour during pandemic

Scientific Literacy Linked to Attitudes Toward COVID-19 Vaccinations: A Pre-Registered Study

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