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Societal Responses to Familiar Versus Unfamiliar Risk: Comparisons of Influenza and SARS in Korea
Author(s) -
Hong Seonghoon,
Collins Alan
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2006.00812.x
Subject(s) - vaccination , cognitive reframing , risk perception , incidence (geometry) , environmental health , public health , medicine , perception , pandemic , covid-19 , demography , immunology , psychology , social psychology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , physics , nursing , pathology , neuroscience , sociology , optics
This study examines the connections between familiar (influenza) and unfamiliar (SARS) risks among the general public in a SARS affected society. Using a survey of 350 respondents in Chonju, we find that risk perceptions and a belief that influenza vaccination reduces the incidence of SARS explain behavioral intentions for influenza vaccination and purchase responses to a hypothetical SARS vaccine. Those respondents who believe that an influenza vaccination will very likely reduce SARS incidence have a high probability (79%) of intending to vaccinate, but a much lower WTP for a SARS vaccine than those without such a belief. This belief undoubtedly was influenced by a reframing of influenza vaccination as preventing SARS. Such reframing may lead to short‐term improvements in vaccination rates to the detriment of long‐term SARS vaccination development. When compared with a similar study in Taiwan, societal risk perceptions of SARS and WTP for a vaccine vary greatly according to the extent of a society's experience with SARS.