The roots of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: evidence from Hungary

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Abstract

This research explores the determinants of vaccine hesitancy during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary. This article utilizes data from in-person public opinion research conducted in Hungary (March 2021, N = 1000). Government supporters, older people (60 +) and COVID-19 survivors were more likely to accept vaccination, but these variables lose significance, once controlling for personal fears and pandemic-related attitudes. COVID-19 related fears and precautious behavior reduce, while general level of fears increase the probability of vaccine hesitancy. Fear from partner’s aggression and higher levels of financial security negatively correlate with vaccine hesitancy. Our study separately analyzes the effect of various pandemic-related conspiratorial beliefs on vaccine hesitancy. All analyzed false beliefs have a significant positive effect on vaccine hesitancy, but the strongest predictors are vaccine-related conspiracy theories (“microchip” and “population control” theories) and virus denial.

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Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom

Jamie Murphy, Frédérique Vallières, Richard P. Bentall … (2021)

Identifying and understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy within distinct populations may aid future public health messaging. Using nationally representative data from the general adult populations of Ireland (N = 1041) and the United Kingdom (UK; N = 2025), we found that vaccine hesitancy/resistance was evident for 35% and 31% of these populations respectively. Vaccine hesitant/resistant respondents in Ireland and the UK differed on a number of sociodemographic and health-related variables but were similar across a broad array of psychological constructs. In both populations, those resistant to a COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to obtain information about the pandemic from traditional and authoritative sources and had similar levels of mistrust in these sources compared to vaccine accepting respondents. Given the geographical proximity and socio-economic similarity of the populations studied, it is not possible to generalize findings to other populations, however, the methodology employed here may be useful to those wishing to understand COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy elsewhere.

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Vaccine hesitancy in the era of COVID-19

Gianmarco Troiano, Alessandra Nardi (2021)

Objectives In 2019 a new coronavirus has been identified and many efforts have been directed towards the development of effective vaccines. However, the willingness for vaccination is deeply influenced by several factors. So the aim of our review was to analyze the theme of vaccine hesitancy during COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on vaccine hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccine. Study Design Narrative Review. Methods In November 2020 we performed a search for original peer-reviewed papers in the electronic database PubMed (MEDLINE). The key search terms were “Vaccine hesitancy AND COVID-19”. We searched for studies published during COVID 19 pandemic and reporting information about the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy. Results 15 studies were included in the review. The percentage of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance was not so high (up to 86.1% students or 77.6% general population); for influenza vaccine the maximum percentage was 69%. Several factors influenced the acceptance or refusal (ethnicity, working status, religiosity, politics, gender, age, education, income, ..). The most given reasons to refuse vaccine were: being against vaccines in general, concerns about safety/thinking that a vaccine produced in a rush is too dangerous, considering the vaccine useless because of the harmless nature of COVID-19, general lack of trust, doubts about the efficiency of the vaccine, belief to be already immunized, doubt about the provenience of vaccine. Conclusions The high vaccine hesitancy, also during COVID-19 pandemic, represents an important problem, and further efforts should be done in order to support people and give them correct information about vaccines.

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COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK: the Oxford coronavirus explanations, attitudes, and narratives survey (Oceans) II

Daniel Freeman, Bao Loe, Andrew Chadwick … (2020)

Background Our aim was to estimate provisional willingness to receive a coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine, identify predictive socio-demographic factors, and, principally, determine potential causes in order to guide information provision. Methods A non-probability online survey was conducted (24th September−17th October 2020) with 5,114 UK adults, quota sampled to match the population for age, gender, ethnicity, income, and region. The Oxford COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy scale assessed intent to take an approved vaccine. Structural equation modelling estimated explanatory factor relationships. Results 71.7% (n=3,667) were willing to be vaccinated, 16.6% (n=849) were very unsure, and 11.7% (n=598) were strongly hesitant. An excellent model fit (RMSEA=0.05/CFI=0.97/TLI=0.97), explaining 86% of variance in hesitancy, was provided by beliefs about the collective importance, efficacy, side-effects, and speed of development of a COVID-19 vaccine. A second model, with reasonable fit (RMSEA=0.03/CFI=0.93/TLI=0.92), explaining 32% of variance, highlighted two higher-order explanatory factors: ‘excessive mistrust’ (r=0.51), including conspiracy beliefs, negative views of doctors, and need for chaos, and ‘positive healthcare experiences’ (r=−0.48), including supportive doctor interactions and good NHS care. Hesitancy was associated with younger age, female gender, lower income, and ethnicity, but socio-demographic information explained little variance (9.8%). Hesitancy was associated with lower adherence to social distancing guidelines. Conclusions COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is relatively evenly spread across the population. Willingness to take a vaccine is closely bound to recognition of the collective importance. Vaccine public information that highlights prosocial benefits may be especially effective. Factors such as conspiracy beliefs that foster mistrust and erode social cohesion will lower vaccine up-take.

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Author and article information

Contributors

András Bíró-Nagy:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7647-4478

Biro-Nagy.Andras@tk.hu

Áron József Szászi: Szaszi.Aron@tk.hu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Behav Med

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Behav Med

Title: Journal of Behavioral Medicine

Publisher: Springer US (New York )

ISSN (Print): 0160-7715

ISSN (Electronic): 1573-3521

Publication date (Electronic): 14 May 2022

Publication date PMC-release: 14 May 2022

Pages: 1-16

Affiliations

GRID grid.5018.c, ISNI 0000 0001 2149 4407, Centre for Social Sciences, , Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence, ; Budapest, Hungary

Author information

András Bíró-Nagy http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7647-4478

Article

Publisher ID: 314

DOI: 10.1007/s10865-022-00314-5

PMC ID: 9106981

PubMed ID: 35567729

SO-VID: 35edc3da-aef2-4cd2-9062-7513f0dffe4f

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Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

Date received : 31 August 2021

Date accepted : 29 March 2022

Funding

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100005846, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung;

Award ID: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Funded by: Centre for Social Sciences

Open Access :

Open access funding provided by Centre for Social Sciences.

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Most cited references 18

Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom

Vaccine hesitancy in the era of COVID-19

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK: the Oxford coronavirus explanations, attitudes, and narratives survey (Oceans) II

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