Vaccine Hesitancy and Attitudes Toward Elite Knowledge in the United States During COVID-19

Abstract

To be effective, the battle against COVID-19 and other pandemics must address the social dimensions of the crisis. The objective of this study was to assess whether negative attitudes toward elite knowledge were associated with vaccine hesitancy in the United States during COVID-19. Attitudes toward elite knowledge were assessed using three measures: (a) the Epistemological Style Inventory’s ‘naive realism’ subscale, (b) a measure about supporting education to foster understanding of politics, and (c) a populism scale. Vaccine hesitancy was measured using a 9-item adaptation of the Vaccine Hesitancy Scale used by the World Health Organization. Multiple regression results revealed that naïve realism (.184, p < .001) and populism (.356, p < .001) were positively associated with vaccine hesitancy, while support of political education (−.296, p < .001) was negatively associated with vaccine hesitancy. These results indicate that to fully understand vaccine hesitancy, the role of attitudes toward elite knowledge must be considered.