Neutralizing COVID-19 Vaccine Politicization via Strategic Health Communication

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Abstract

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Republicans were more likely than Democrats to intend to refuse COVID-19 vaccination; endangering achieving population immunity. I introduce a novel political and health communication strategy -- retrospective vs. prospective responsibility framing -- aimed at neutralizing vaccine politicization. Retrospective frames emphasize the vaccine-related accomplishments of the previous (Republican) presidential administration, whereas prospective frames emphasize the responsibilities and competencies of the incoming (Democratic) administration. After providing new, multivariate evidence of vaccine polarization across six demographically representative surveys (N > 6,000), I demonstrate via a survey experiment (N = 1,000) -- with both within and between-subjects components -- that retrospective responsibility frames significantly increase Republicans' vaccination intentions. Surprisingly, given their elevated propensity to vaccinate, I find that prospective responsibility frames also significantly increase Democrats' intentions to vaccinate. I conclude by discussing how health communicators can use information from this study to facilitate vaccine uptake, and consider the viability of retrospective and prospective framing strategies for neutralizing partisan disagreement on many politically contentious public health issues.

Author

• Matthew P. Motta, Oklahoma State University