Behavioral Barriers in the Covid-19 Vaccination Process
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Final Report Abstract
Background: Many countries, such as Germany, struggle to vaccinate enough people against COVID-19 despite the availability of safe and efficient vaccines. With new variants emerging and the need for booster vaccinations, overcoming vaccination hesitancy gains importance. The research to date has unveiled some promising, albeit contentious, interventions to increase vaccination intentions. However, these have yet to be tested for their effectiveness in increasing vaccination rates. Methods & Results: We conducted a preregistered survey experiment with N=1,324 participants in Germany in May/June 2021, which was followed by a series of emails reminding participants to get vaccinated in August and concluded by a follow-up survey in September. We experimentally assess whether debunking vaccination myths, highlighting the benefits of being vaccinated, or merely sending vaccination reminders decreases hesitancy. In the survey experiment, we find no increase in the intention to vaccinate regardless of the information provided. However, communicating vaccination benefits over several weeks reduced the likelihood of not being vaccinated by 9 percentage points, which translates into a 27% reduction compared to the control group. Debunking vaccination myths and reminders alone also decreased the likelihood, yet not significantly. Discussion: Our findings suggest that if soft governmental interventions such as information campaigns are employed, highlighting benefits should be given preference over debunking vaccination myths. Furthermore, it seems that repeated messages affect vaccination action while one-time messages might be insufficient, even for increasing vaccination intentions. Our study highlights the importance of testing interventions outside of survey experiments that are limited to measuring vaccination intentions – not actions – and immediate changes in attitudes and intentions – not long-term changes. Conclusion: The findings from this project could be important for guiding future vaccination campaigns to reduce the spread of and deaths related to COVID-19. Given the large proportion of people not yet vaccinated in many countries, waning vaccine protection, the emergence of new variants, and the requirement of booster vaccinations, the development of effective COVID-19 vaccination campaigns will remain important for the foreseeable future.
Publications
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Repeated information of benefits reduces COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy: Experimental evidence from Germany. PLOS ONE, 17(6), e0270666.
Burger, Maximilian Nicolaus; Mayer, Matthias & Steimanis, Ivo
