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
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.
Is Part Of
VCU Psychology Publications
Comments
Originally published at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264019