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      To vax or not to vax: Predictors of anti-vax attitudes and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy prior to widespread vaccine availability

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          Abstract

          The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a highly contagious disease responsible for millions of deaths worldwide. Effective vaccines against COVID-19 are now available, however, an extreme form of vaccine hesitancy known as anti-vax attitudes challenge vaccine acceptance and distribution efforts. To understand these anti-vax attitudes and their associated psychological characteristics, we examined several predictors of vaccine hesitancy for COVID-19 and anti-vax attitudes generally. We surveyed 1004 adults (M = 47.0 years, SD = 17.1 years, range 18–98 years) in September-October 2020 across the United States (51% female, 49% male; 76.5% White, 23.5% non-White), prior to widespread availability of the COVID-19 vaccines. Attitudes toward vaccinations were influenced by a variety of factors, especially political attitudes. We should therefore anticipate and attempt to mitigate these challenges to achieving widespread vaccination to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other communicable diseases.

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          Predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK Household Longitudinal Study

          Vaccine hesitancy could undermine efforts to control COVID-19. We investigated the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK and identified vaccine hesitant subgroups. The ‘Understanding Society’ COVID-19 survey asked participants (n=12,035) their likelihood of vaccine uptake and reason for hesitancy. Cross-sectional analysis assessed vaccine hesitancy prevalence and logistic regression calculated odds ratios. Overall vaccine hesitancy was low (18% unlikely/very unlikely). Vaccine hesitancy was higher in women (21.0% vs 14.7%), younger age groups (26.5% in 16-24 year olds vs 4.5% in 75+) and those with lower education levels (18.6% no qualifications vs 13.2% degree qualified). Vaccine hesitancy was high in Black (71.8%) and Pakistani/Bangladeshi (42.3%) ethnic groups. Odds ratios for vaccine hesitancy were 13.42 (95% CI:6.86, 26.24) in Black and 2.54 (95% CI:1.19, 5.44) in Pakistani/Bangladeshi groups (compared to White British/Irish) and 3.54 (95%CI:2.06, 6.09) for people with no qualifications versus degree. Urgent action to address hesitancy is needed for some but not all ethnic minority groups.
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            Public health significance of neuroticism.

            The personality trait of neuroticism refers to relatively stable tendencies to respond with negative emotions to threat, frustration, or loss. Individuals in the population vary markedly on this trait, ranging from frequent and intense emotional reactions to minor challenges to little emotional reaction even in the face of significant difficulties. Although not widely appreciated, there is growing evidence that neuroticism is a psychological trait of profound public health significance. Neuroticism is a robust correlate and predictor of many different mental and physical disorders, comorbidity among them, and the frequency of mental and general health service use. Indeed, neuroticism apparently is a predictor of the quality and longevity of our lives. Achieving a full understanding of the nature and origins of neuroticism, and the mechanisms through which neuroticism is linked to mental and physical disorders, should be a top priority for research. Knowing why neuroticism predicts such a wide variety of seemingly diverse outcomes should lead to improved understanding of commonalities among those outcomes and improved strategies for preventing them. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.
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              The Psychological Roots of Anti-Vaccination Attitudes: A 24-Nation Investigation.

              Strengthening of antivaccination movements in recent decades has coincided with unprecedented increases in the incidence of some communicable diseases. Many intervention programs work from a deficit model of science communication, presuming that vaccination skeptics lack the ability to access or understand evidence. However, interventions focusing on evidence and the debunking of vaccine-related myths have proven to be either nonproductive or counterproductive. Working from a motivated reasoning perspective, we examine the psychological factors that might motivate people to reject scientific consensus around vaccination. To assist with international generalizability, we examine this question in 24 countries.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Investigation
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: InvestigationRole: Project administrationRole: Supervision
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Funding acquisitionRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Funding acquisitionRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: SupervisionRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS One
                plos
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                15 February 2022
                2022
                15 February 2022
                : 17
                : 2
                : e0264019
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
                [2 ] Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States of America
                [3 ] Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, United States of America
                University of Haifa, ISRAEL
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4518-3210
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4837-9534
                Article
                PONE-D-21-25967
                10.1371/journal.pone.0264019
                8846500
                35167612
                5275faa0-507c-4eec-a02e-e4846702d9f5
                © 2022 Roberts 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.

                History
                : 10 August 2021
                : 31 January 2022
                Page count
                Figures: 1, Tables: 7, Pages: 19
                Funding
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100007197, U.S. Public Health Service;
                Award ID: AA024433
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100007197, U.S. Public Health Service;
                Award ID: AA02579
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: funder-id http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000027, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism;
                Award ID: AA007477
                This work was supported by United States Public Health Service grants R01 AA024433 (BH), R01 AA02579 (MH), and T32 AA007477 (Blow) from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Medical Conditions
                Infectious Diseases
                Viral Diseases
                Covid 19
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Psychology
                Psychological Attitudes
                Social Sciences
                Psychology
                Psychological Attitudes
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Medical Conditions
                Infectious Diseases
                Infectious Disease Control
                Vaccines
                Social Sciences
                Sociology
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                Immunology
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                Immunology
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                Public and Occupational Health
                Preventive Medicine
                Vaccination and Immunization
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Immunology
                Vaccination and Immunization
                Vaccine Development
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Immunology
                Vaccination and Immunization
                Vaccine Development
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Public and Occupational Health
                Preventive Medicine
                Vaccination and Immunization
                Vaccine Development
                People and places
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                North America
                United States
                Custom metadata
                All data and code are hosted through the Open Science Framework (OSF) and can be accessed using the following link: https://osf.io/cqa6m/?view_only=659f436af1ce4049b2e1d01d8b540343. This link is also provided in the main body of the manuscript. We will make the entire page fully public after the review process.
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