Understanding the psychological antecedents of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among Black Americans: implications for vaccine communication.

BACKGROUND: Guided by the 5C (confidence, complacency, constraints, calculation, and collective responsibility) model of vaccination behavior, we examine the psychological antecedents of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (i.e. attitudes and intentions toward COVID-19 vaccination) among Black Americans, a group disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic. METHOD: We conducted a national survey of Black Americans (N = 1,497) in February/March 2021. RESULTS: We found that, among the five psychological antecedents, three (confidence, calculation - or extensive information searching, and collective responsibility) significantly predicted attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination and had indirect effects on vaccination intentions through vaccination attitudes. Two antecedents (confidence and collective responsibility) also directly predicted vaccination intentions. Our analysis suggests that a partially mediated model produced better fit than a fully mediated model. CONCLUSIONS: Developing culturally tailored interventions for Black Americans that build confidence in COVID-19 vaccines, highlight collective responsibility, and attend to Black Americans' information sources is key to boosting Black Americans' COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Future research is needed to understand how historical and ongoing racism affects the psychological antecedents of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among Black Americans.

Beliefs in COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Among Unvaccinated Black Americans: Prevalence, Socio-Psychological Predictors, and Consequences.

Health-related misinformation is a major threat to public health and particularly worrisome for populations experiencing health disparities. This study sets out to examine the prevalence, socio-psychological predictors, and consequences of beliefs in COVID-19 vaccine misinformation among unvaccinated Black Americans. We conducted an online national survey with Black Americans who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 (N = 800) between February and March 2021. Results showed that beliefs in COVID-19 vaccine misinformation were prevalent among unvaccinated Black Americans with 13-19% of participants agreeing or strongly agreeing with various false claims about COVID-19 vaccines and 35-55% unsure about the veracity of these claims. Conservative ideology, conspiracy thinking mind-set, religiosity, and racial consciousness in health care settings predicted greater beliefs in COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, which were associated with lower vaccine confidence and acceptance. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.