Vaccine hesitancy profile: the relationship between personal experience with vaccines, attitudes toward mandatory vaccination, and support for anti-vaccine arguments among vaccine hesitant individuals

Available at: https://doi.org/10.32872/spb.6525

Commentary

The purpose of this research paper was to investigate the sensitivity to antivaccine rhetoric in a vaccine hesitant population.

Based on the literature on attitudes and attitude change, it was hypothesized that susceptibility to anti-vaccine arguments would be related to personal experience with vaccination and the strength of vaccine hesitant attitudes.

An online survey of 492 vaccine hesitant respondents was conducted in Poland.

The results showed that individuals who declared a negative experience with vaccination were persuaded by arguments against vaccines of any kind. In addition, the results for antivaccine skepticism showed that individuals interpreted negative symptoms as a result of the vaccine, causing them to further reinforce their negative attitudes. In addition to this, the ambiguity of vaccines seemed to be a credit to the serious negative side effects of vaccination and the ulterior motives of pharmaceutical companies, but not to the belief that vaccines are ineffective.

However, the opinion profile of vaccine refusers indicates that it may be a generalized stance rather than a series of discrete issues regarding various perceived negative aspects of vaccination.

In other words, vaccination deniers may view adverse reactions to vaccines as an effect of the vaccine, rather than a denial based on personal experience or other factors, and they may view the results of past vaccinations as an effect of the current vaccine.

This is why vaccine deniers argue against vaccines, but not against vaccines themselves.