Document Type

Article

Original Publication Date

2022

Journal/Book/Conference Title

PLOS ONE

Volume

17

Issue

2

DOI of Original Publication

10.1371/journal.pone.0264019

Comments

Originally published at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264019

Date of Submission

October 2023

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.

Rights

© 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.

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VCU Psychology Publications

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Psychology Commons

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