ABSTRACT
Introduction: Vaccines have emerged as a ray of hope in our battle against Covid-19. That as the backdrop, this research was aimed at studying how the framing of messages impacts attitudes of Indians towards Covid- 19 vaccines. The hypothesis was that the perceived norms about taking the vaccine will influence participants’ reported intentions to take the Covid vaccine. That is, exposure to a message indicating how willing or unwilling other Indians are to get vaccinated for the Covid-19 disease, will bring about a change in the beliefs and behavioural intention of the participants which will be in line with the message. Methodology: A between-subjects design was used. Participants (N=125. M=56, F=69) were randomly assigned to either of the two levels - positive or negative. Participants were pro-vaccines in general and between 18 to 30 years. A seven-point Likert scale was used to measure participants' willingness to take the vaccine, once it is commercially available. Results: Data was found to be not normally distributed. Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test was used. The Median score was 6 and 5 for level 1 and level 2, respectively. The obtained difference between the two groups was insignificant. Descriptive data was found to be in line with the hypothesis. Conclusion: Statistical significance was not found in the impact of framing on the participants in this study. In qualitative responses, groups expressed concerns over vaccines. Respondents from the negative framing group, agreeing to take the vaccine, could have been due to the social desirability bias
ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis which has produced significant psychological fear in individuals. Fear, a survival-related emotion studied in evolutionary psychology, leads people to place importance on conformity to group norms in terms of attitudes and behaviours, leading to better odds of survival. This study strives to explore the relationship between Illness- related emotions and the indicators of conformity. Methodology: The study employed an experimental design. Participants in the experimental group were primed by arousing disease-related threat in them, whereas the control group was not primed. Participants' tendency to endorse conformity in hypothetical situations were examined with the help of four measures- three choice-based tasks and one self-report questionnaire. Results: The research findings revealed that illness-related fear/anxiety has an impact on behavioural conformity with the majority opinion, but this impact was not significant on other three dependent measures of conformity- Valuation of Obedience, Self- reported Conformist attitudes and Liking for people with Conformist Traits. Conclusion: The study has implications in understanding the antecedent of conformity and the psychology of threat in the collectivistic culture of India, especially in the face of a pandemic.