Are optimists more eager to get vaccinated? Who are anti-vaxxers?

What we researched:

• The researchers investigated the role of peoples’ worldviews in forming attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines.

How we did it:

• Over two weeks, researchers collected online questionnaires from 425 young Europeans (18-35). Participants were asked if they would pay for a COVID-19 vaccine, how they perceived its efficacy, and if they support the strategy promoting inoculation in general.

What we discovered:

• The results suggest that an optimistic worldview in the form of a strong belief in the world’s positivity leads consumers to accept vaccinations, especially when the world is viewed as not ordered (disordered) and vaccines are perceived as highly novel, while the belief in the world’s orderliness diminishes the positive effect of belief in the world’s positivity on vaccine attitudes.
• Furthermore, the perceived vaccine novelty enhances the degree to which belief in orderliness diminished the positive positivity effect on vaccine attitudes. Finally, perceived vaccine novelty appears to influence perceived vaccination effectiveness negatively, and in turn, harm the behavioral outcomes.

Why is it important:

• The results extend the existing literature on people’s worldviews into the domain of vaccine attitudes, and provide new insights on the role of perceived vaccine novelty. For vaccination policymakers and marketers, the paper suggests how to promote vaccinations with consideration of orderliness/positivity beliefs and vaccine novelty perception.