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. 2022 Jul:227:103606.
doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103606. Epub 2022 May 4.

Fear trumps the common good: Psychological antecedents of vaccination attitudes and behaviour

Magdalena Adamus  1 , Vladimíra Čavojová  2 , Eva Ballová Mikušková  2
Affiliations

Fear trumps the common good: Psychological antecedents of vaccination attitudes and behaviour

Magdalena Adamus et al. Acta Psychol (Amst). 2022 Jul.

Abstract

The study investigated antecedents of attitudes towards vaccines against COVID-19 and vaccination behaviour, and sought to identify areas where interventions aimed at increasing vaccination rates would be most effective. A sample of 500 Slovaks (250 women) responded to questions concerning their socio-demographic and personality characteristics, collectivism and individualism, consciousness of future consequences, and emotional responses to both vaccination and the pandemic. The study indicates that helplessness related to the vaccine efficacy evaluation and fear of its potential risks are the strongest antecedents of vaccination behaviour and anti-vaccination attitudes. Jointly with the fear of the COVID-19, they explained over 26% and 33% of variance in behaviour and attitudes, respectively. The results indicate that the efficiency of appeals to solidarity may be limited when fear and helplessness are widespread as they seem to strongly outweigh individuals' outward motivations to get vaccinated.

Keywords: COVID-19; Fear; Helplessness; Threat perception; Vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors hereby declare that they have no conflicts of interests to declare.

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