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. 2024 Apr 25:11:20551029241248757.
doi: 10.1177/20551029241248757. eCollection 2024 Jan-Dec.

Alike but not the same: Psychological profiles of COVID-19 vaccine skeptics

Ursula Voss  1   2 , Karin Schermelleh-Engel  1 , Leana Hauser  2 , Mira Holzmann  3 , Diana Fichtner  2 , Sonja Seifert  2 , Ansgar Klimke  2   4 , Sabine Windmann  1
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Alike but not the same: Psychological profiles of COVID-19 vaccine skeptics

Ursula Voss et al. Health Psychol Open. .

Abstract

One of the challenges of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was a widespread skepticism about vaccination. To elucidate the underlying mental and emotional predispositions, we examined a sample of 1428 participants using latent profile analysis (LPA) on selected personality trait variables, mental health status, and measures of irrational beliefs. LPA revealed five distinct profiles: two classes of non-skeptics and three of skeptics. The smaller non-skeptic class reported the highest rates of mental health problems, along with high levels of neuroticism, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, and external locus of control. The larger non-skeptic class was psychologically well-balanced. Conversely, the skeptic groups shared strong distrust of COVID-19 vaccination but differed in emotional and mental profiles, leading to graded differences in endorsing extreme conspiracy beliefs. This suggests that vaccine skepticism is not solely a result of mental illness or emotional instability; rather extreme skepticism manifests as a nuanced, graded phenomenon contingent on personality traits and conspirational beliefs.

Keywords: COVID-19; conspiracy; latent profile analysis; pandemic; psychological profiles; scale construction; vaccine skepticism.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Latent profiles of vaccine non-skeptics and skeptics characterized by their patterns (estimated mean scores, individual scores ranging from 1 to 7) of personality traits, COVID-19-specific attitudes, and conspirational beliefs. Note: N = 1144. Final class proportions are based on the most likely latent class membership.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Percentage of vaccinated participants in two classes comprising vaccine non-skeptics (class 1 and 2) and three classes comprising vaccine skeptics (class 3, 4, 5). Note: N = 1144, **p < .01.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Percentage of participants in classes 1 to 5 who reported a diagnosed mental health condition. Note: N = 1144, **p < .01.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Reasons of vaccinated individuals that led to vaccination. Multiple answers were allowed (N = 915).
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Reasons of unvaccinated individuals that led to vaccination refusal. Multiple answers were allowed (N = 259).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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