TY - JOUR

T1 - Making sense of unfamiliar COVID-19 vaccines

T2 - How national origin affects vaccination willingness

AU - Jensen, Eric A.

AU - Wagoner, Brady

AU - Pfleger, Axel

AU - Herbig, Lisa

AU - Watzlawik, Meike

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Jensen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

PY - 2021/12

Y1 - 2021/12

N2 - Vaccination willingness is a critical factor in pandemics, including the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, investigating underlying drivers of vaccination willingness/hesitancy is an essential social science contribution. The present study of German residents investigates the mental shortcuts people are using to make sense of unfamiliar vaccine options by examining vaccination willingness for different vaccines using an experimental design in a quantitative survey. German vaccines were preferred over equivalent foreign vaccines, and the favorability ratings of foreign countries where COVID-19 vaccines were developed correlated with the level of vaccination willingness for each vaccine. The patterns in vaccination willingness were more pronounced when the national origin was shown along with the vaccine manufacturer label. The study shows how non-scientific factors drive everyday decision-making about vaccination. Taking such social psychological and communication aspects into account in the design of vaccination campaigns would increase their effectiveness.

AB - Vaccination willingness is a critical factor in pandemics, including the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, investigating underlying drivers of vaccination willingness/hesitancy is an essential social science contribution. The present study of German residents investigates the mental shortcuts people are using to make sense of unfamiliar vaccine options by examining vaccination willingness for different vaccines using an experimental design in a quantitative survey. German vaccines were preferred over equivalent foreign vaccines, and the favorability ratings of foreign countries where COVID-19 vaccines were developed correlated with the level of vaccination willingness for each vaccine. The patterns in vaccination willingness were more pronounced when the national origin was shown along with the vaccine manufacturer label. The study shows how non-scientific factors drive everyday decision-making about vaccination. Taking such social psychological and communication aspects into account in the design of vaccination campaigns would increase their effectiveness.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122020921&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0261273

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0261273

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 34965278

AN - SCOPUS:85122020921

VL - 16

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

M1 - e0261273

ER -