Can Endorsement Move the Needle on Vaccine Hesitancy?

• In Event: Enduring Effects of COVID-19: A Global Perspective (Virtual Session)

Abstract

Existing research, including work specific to COVID-19, suggests that vaccine endorsement by medical practitioners increases uptake. Yet, vaccine hesitancy persists even though health professionals have continued to widely endorse vaccination since the development of multiple vaccines to combat COVID-19 in late 2020. Could endorsement by other trusted leaders be utilized to decrease vaccine hesitancy, including the perception of the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness? Although some studies suggests that trust in politicians and religious leaders can influence individuals' health attitudes and behaviors, the evidence is mixed. Our study aimed to explore the potential added value of trust in politicians and religious leaders by testing whether their endorsement of the COVID-19 vaccine has a marginal effect where health professionals are already endorsing this vaccine. We conducted an online survey experiment with 6,000 respondents across five countries that share many key similarities but have varying levels of baseline vaccine hesitancy: Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey. Respondents were randomly assigned to either a control group that only included the endorsement of health professionals or one of two treatment groups that also included either the endorsement of politicians or the endorsement of religious leaders. We found that endorsement by either political leaders or religious leaders does not seem to further reduce vaccine hesitancy. Our findings suggest that medical practitioners may still be the first and best line of defense in terms of combatting vaccine hesitancy.

Authors

• Pauline Jones, University of Michigan

• Anil Menon, University of Michigan

• Allen D. Hicken, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor