Psychological Correlates of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: The Moderating role of Fear of Vaccine Side-effects
Abstract
Vaccine hesitancy refers to an intentional delay in or a complete refusal of getting vaccinated (Pires, 2022). Despite the nationwide distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, nearly 20% of the US population has not been vaccinated (Americares, 2022). Previous studies suggest that negative affect may lead to higher acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine (Kejriwal & Shen, 2021), despite results being mixed. In two studies, we examined psychological determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. We also extended existing findings by proposing fear of side-effects as a moderator that may explain the inconsistency observed in the association between negative affect and vaccination hesitancy.
Keywords:
Psychology, experimental health psychology, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, psychological vulnerability, fear of vaccine side-effects
Status
G
Department
Psychology
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Campus
Athens
Faculty Mentor
Mischkowski, Dominik
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Psychological Correlates of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: The Moderating role of Fear of Vaccine Side-effects
Vaccine hesitancy refers to an intentional delay in or a complete refusal of getting vaccinated (Pires, 2022). Despite the nationwide distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, nearly 20% of the US population has not been vaccinated (Americares, 2022). Previous studies suggest that negative affect may lead to higher acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine (Kejriwal & Shen, 2021), despite results being mixed. In two studies, we examined psychological determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. We also extended existing findings by proposing fear of side-effects as a moderator that may explain the inconsistency observed in the association between negative affect and vaccination hesitancy.