New Article in Psychological Medicine: Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the UK

Since the summer, I've been part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers, led by Daniel Freeman, a clinical psychologist at Oxford University, examining COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK. We have a new, peer-reviewed, article out in Psychological Medicine from December 11, 2020.

My colleague in media and communication at Loughborough, Cristian Vaccari, and I joined forces with scholars from Oxford, Cambridge, Aston, and Bristol universities, working in the fields of clinical and social psychology, psychometrics, moral philosophy, immunology, vaccinology, medical sociology, medical statistics, economics and financial behaviour.

Based on a large-scale survey of 5,114 UK adults in October 2020, quota sampled to match the population for age, gender, ethnicity, income, and region, we found that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is not heavily concentrated in particular demographic groups but is relatively evenly spread across the population. 71.7% (n=3,667) of the UK adult population were willing to be vaccinated, 16.6% (n=849) were very unsure, and 11.7% (n=598) were strongly hesitant. Willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine is closely bound to recognition of the collective importance of doing so: a prosocial outlook. Conspiracy beliefs and other attitudinal variables, such as the "need for chaos," and the perception of being low on the social ladder, foster mistrust and erode social cohesion and will reduce vaccine up-take. Negative perceptions of doctors, vaccine developers, and healthcare experiences also feed into the distrust. Positive GP experiences, views of doctors, medicine, and NHS experiences, counter mistrust, and were connected with greater enthusiasm about a COVID-19 vaccine.

The overall implications of our study are the potential importance of emphasising in public health campaigns the prosocial benefits of a COVID-19 vaccine, as well as the need to be transparent about safety and efficacy. Public health communication may need to be carefully attuned to different kinds of collective identities and benefits in order to resonate with pro-social motives. In this way, such messaging may not only help consolidate the majority willing to be vaccinated but perhaps also increase the willingness of those who are hesitant. Careful testing and refining of messaging across the spectrum of hesitancy will be needed. The survey findings also indicate that, in addition to emphasising collective benefits, it may be effective to highlight the many positive contributions that NHS staff make.

Freeman, D., Loe, B. S., Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., Waite, F., Rosebrock, L., Jenner, L., Petit, A., Lewandowsky, S., Vanderslott, S., Innocenti, S., Larkin, M., Giubilini, A., Yu, L-M, McShane, H., Pollard, A.J., & Lambe, S. (2020). Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the UK: The Oxford Coronavirus Explanations, Attitudes, and Narratives Survey (OCEANS) II. Psychological Medicine. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720005188

You can download the peer-reviewed article here, for free (open access) and read a detailed blog post about the study here.