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. 2021 Jan 4;12(1):29.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20226-9.

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

Jamie Murphy  1 , Frédérique Vallières  2 , Richard P Bentall  3 , Mark Shevlin  4 , Orla McBride  4 , Todd K Hartman  3 , Ryan McKay  5 , Kate Bennett  6 , Liam Mason  7 , Jilly Gibson-Miller  3 , Liat Levita  3 , Anton P Martinez  3 , Thomas V A Stocks  3 , Thanos Karatzias  8 , Philip Hyland  9
Affiliations

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

Jamie Murphy et al. Nat Commun. .

Abstract

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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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Rates of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, hesitance, and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom (UK), and in the four devolved nations of the UK.
Data are presented as the proportion of the Irish (N = 1041) and United Kingdom (N = 2025) samples indicating COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (dark blue), hesitance (grey), and resistance (light blue) in the first two bar-charts on the left side of the figure. Error bars present the 95% confidence intervals of these proportions. The same information is presented for the four devolved nations of the United Kingdom on the right side of the figure. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Sources of COVID-19 information for vaccine accepting, hesitant, and resistant groups in the Irish sample.
Data presented show the degree to which COVID-19 vaccine accepting (blue), hesitant (orange), and resistant (grey) respondents from the Irish sample (N = 1041) source information about COVID-19 from nine separate sources. Scaling on y-axis denotes 1–4 Likert scaling of ‘Sources of COVID-19 Information’ measure (1 = none, 2 = a little, 3 = some, 4 = a lot). Error bars present the 95% confidence intervals of these proportions. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Trust in COVID-19 information sources for vaccine accepting, hesitant, and resistant groups in the Irish sample.
Data presented show the degree to which COVID-19 vaccine accepting (blue), hesitant (orange), and resistant (grey) respondents from the Irish sample (N = 1041) trust information about COVID-19 from nine separate sources. Scaling on y-axis denotes 1–4 Likert scaling of ‘Sources of COVID-19 Information’ measure (1 = none, 2 = a little, 3 = some, 4 = a lot). Error bars present the 95% confidence intervals of these proportions. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Sources of COVID-19 information for vaccine accepting, hesitant, and resistant groups in the UK sample.
Data presented show the degree to which COVID-19 vaccine accepting (blue), hesitant (orange), and resistant (grey) respondents from the UK sample (N = 2025) source information about COVID-19 from nine separate sources. Scaling on y-axis denotes 1–4 Likert scaling of ‘Sources of COVID-19 Information’ measure (1 = none, 2 = a little, 3 = some, 4 = a lot). Error bars present the 95% confidence intervals of these proportions. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. Trust in COVID-19 information sources for vaccine accepting, hesitant, and resistant groups in the UK sample.
Data presented show the degree to which COVID-19 vaccine accepting (blue), hesitant (orange), and resistant (grey) respondents from the UK sample (N = 2025) trust information about COVID-19 from nine separate sources. Scaling on y-axis denotes 1–4 Likert scaling of ‘Sources of COVID-19 Information’ measure (1 = none, 2 = a little, 3 = some, 4 = a lot). Error bars present the 95% confidence intervals of these proportions. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
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