ABSTRACT
As safe and effective vaccines become widely available, attaining herd immunity and limiting the spread of COVID-19 will depend on individuals choosing to vaccinate-and doing so quickly enough to outpace mutations. Using online surveys conducted across six Latin American countries in January 2021, we experimentally assess messages designed to counteract informational deficiencies and collective action problems that may drive hesitancy. We first find that basic vaccine information persuades around 8% of hesitant individuals to become willing to vaccinate, reduces intended wait to vaccinate by 0.4 months, and increases willingness to encourage others to vaccinate. Rather than facilitating free riding, learning, or social conformity, additional information about others' behavior increases vaccine acceptance when respondents expect herd immunity will be achieved. Finally, priming the social approval benefits of vaccinating also increases vaccine acceptance. These results suggest that providing information and shaping social expectations and incentives could both significantly increase vaccine uptake.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/psychology , Vaccination Refusal/psychology , Vaccination/psychology , COVID-19/prevention & control , COVID-19 Vaccines/therapeutic use , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Humans , Latin America , Patient Acceptance of Health Care/psychology , Patient Acceptance of Health Care/statistics & numerical data , Persuasive Communication , SARS-CoV-2/pathogenicity , Surveys and Questionnaires , Vaccination/statistics & numerical data , Vaccination Refusal/trends , Vaccines/pharmacologyABSTRACT
Herd immunity by mass vaccination offers the potential to substantially limit the continuing spread of COVID-19, but high levels of vaccine hesitancy threaten this goal. In a cross-country analysis of vaccine hesitant respondents across Latin America in January 2021, we experimentally tested how five features of mass vaccination campaigns-the vaccine's producer, efficacy, endorser, distributor, and current population uptake rate-shifted willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine. We find that citizens preferred Western-produced vaccines, but were highly influenced by factual information about vaccine efficacy. Vaccine hesitant individuals were more responsive to vaccine messengers with medical expertise than political, religious, or media elite endorsements. Citizen trust in foreign governments, domestic leaders, and state institutions moderated the effects of the campaign features on vaccine acceptance. These findings can help inform the design of unfolding mass inoculation campaigns.