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      Political Differences in Knowledge and Its Connection With Vaccination During COVID-19

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      Social Psychology
      Hogrefe Publishing Group

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          Abstract

          Abstract: Conservatives in the United States have more negative attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines and are less likely to be vaccinated than liberals. The present research tests whether political differences in knowledge underlie differences in vaccination. Participants in Study 1 completed a knowledge test about COVID-19 vaccines and indicated whether they had received a COVID-19 vaccine. Republicans had worse knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines than Democrats. Furthermore, political differences in vaccination were significantly mediated by knowledge. Study 2 found that exposure to facts about COVID-19 vaccines led to more favorable perceptions of vaccine effectiveness among Republicans, which in turn was associated with stronger vaccination intentions. These data suggest that knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines may help to explain political differences in vaccination.

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          Most cited references24

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          Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and Truths about Mediation Analysis

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            Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA

            Widespread acceptance of a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) will be the next major step in fighting the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, but achieving high uptake will be a challenge and may be impeded by online misinformation. To inform successful vaccination campaigns, we conducted a randomized controlled trial in the UK and the USA to quantify how exposure to online misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines affects intent to vaccinate to protect oneself or others. Here we show that in both countries-as of September 2020-fewer people would 'definitely' take a vaccine than is likely required for herd immunity, and that, relative to factual information, recent misinformation induced a decline in intent of 6.2 percentage points (95th percentile interval 3.9 to 8.5) in the UK and 6.4 percentage points (95th percentile interval 4.0 to 8.8) in the USA among those who stated that they would definitely accept a vaccine. We also find that some sociodemographic groups are differentially impacted by exposure to misinformation. Finally, we show that scientific-sounding misinformation is more strongly associated with declines in vaccination intent.
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              Conspiracy theories as barriers to controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S.

              Rationale The COVID-19 pandemic poses extraordinary challenges to public health. Objective Because the novel coronavirus is highly contagious, the widespread use of preventive measures such as masking, physical distancing, and eventually vaccination is needed to bring it under control. We hypothesized that accepting conspiracy theories that were circulating in mainstream and social media early in the COVID-19 pandemic in the US would be negatively related to the uptake of preventive behaviors and also of vaccination when a vaccine becomes available. Method A national probability survey of US adults (N = 1050) was conducted in the latter half of March 2020 and a follow-up with 840 of the same individuals in July 2020. The surveys assessed adoption of preventive measures recommended by public health authorities, vaccination intentions, conspiracy beliefs, perceptions of threat, belief about the safety of vaccines, political ideology, and media exposure patterns. Results Belief in three COVID-19-related conspiracy theories was highly stable across the two periods and inversely related to the (a) perceived threat of the pandemic, (b) taking of preventive actions, including wearing a face mask, (c) perceived safety of vaccination, and (d) intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Conspiracy beliefs in March predicted subsequent mask-wearing and vaccination intentions in July even after controlling for action taken and intentions in March. Although adopting preventive behaviors was predicted by political ideology and conservative media reliance, vaccination intentions were less related to political ideology. Mainstream television news use predicted adopting both preventive actions and vaccination. Conclusions Because belief in COVID-related conspiracy theories predicts resistance to both preventive behaviors and future vaccination for the virus, it will be critical to confront both conspiracy theories and vaccination misinformation to prevent further spread of the virus in the US. Reducing those barriers will require continued messaging by public health authorities on mainstream media and in particular on politically conservative outlets that have supported COVID-related conspiracy theories.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                (View ORCID Profile)
                (View ORCID Profile)
                Journal
                Social Psychology
                Social Psychology
                Hogrefe Publishing Group
                1864-9335
                2151-2590
                April 27 2023
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Psychology, UNC Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA
                Article
                10.1027/1864-9335/a000517
                ca388038-e3d7-4959-8c22-e87feffe7e7b
                © 2023
                History

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