Religious identity cues increase vaccination intentions and trust in medical experts among American Christians.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
; 118(49)2021 12 07.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34795017
ABSTRACT
Containing the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States requires mobilizing a large majority of the mass public to vaccinate, but many Americans are hesitant or opposed to vaccination. A significant predictor of vaccine attitudes in the United States is religiosity, with more-religious individuals expressing more distrust in science and being less likely to get vaccinated. Here, we test whether explicit cues of common religious identity can help medical experts build trust and increase vaccination intentions. In a preregistered survey experiment conducted with a sample of unvaccinated American Christians (n = 1,765), we presented participants with a vaccine endorsement from a prominent medical expert (NIH Director Francis Collins) and a short essay about doctors' and scientists' endorsement of the vaccines. In the common religious identity condition, these materials also highlighted the religious identity of Collins and many medical experts. Unvaccinated Christians in the common identity condition expressed higher trust in medical experts, greater intentions to vaccinate, and greater intentions to promote vaccination to friends and family than those who did not see the common identity cue. These effects were moderated by religiosity, with the strongest effects observed among the most religious participants, and statistically mediated by heightened perceptions of shared values with the medical expert endorsing the vaccine. These findings demonstrate the efficacy of common identity cues for promoting vaccination in a vaccine-hesitant subpopulation. More generally, the results illustrate how trust in science can be built through the invocation of common group identities, even identities often assumed to be in tension with science.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Religião
/
Vacinação
/
Pessoal de Saúde
/
Sinais (Psicologia)
/
Intenção
/
Confiança
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article