Premium
Do conspiracy theory and mistrust undermine people's intention to receive the COVID‐19 vaccine in Austria?
Author(s) -
Knobel Phil,
Zhao Xiang,
White Katherine M.
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.22714
Subject(s) - vaccination , pandemic , covid-19 , politics , norm (philosophy) , position (finance) , psychology , social psychology , medicine , political science , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , virology , law , finance , pathology , economics
Conspiracy theories flourish during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic especially regarding vaccinations. As the vaccination reluctancy in Austria is high, it is important to understand the antecedents of vaccination intention at the preapproval stage of the vaccination process. An online survey was conducted in August 2020 in Austria with 217 primarily younger, female, educated participants. A two‐step cluster analysis resulted in a sceptics cluster with a clear antivaccination tendency along with a right‐wing political position, lower trust in general vaccines and lower education levels and the reference cluster. A considerable percentage of participants reported their reluctancy to have a COVID‐19 vaccine. Although vaccination intention can be explained by attitude and subjective norm, this decision‐making process is undermined by underlying factors such as conspiracy ideation and political position. Policy makers and health interventionists should take political background into consideration in efforts to increase vaccine compliance.