Vaccinating across the aisle: using co-partisan source cues to encourage COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the ideological right. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States will require most Americans to vaccinate against the disease. However, considerable research suggests that a significant proportion of Americans intend to forego vaccination, putting pandemic recovery at risk. Republicans are one of the largest groups of COVID-19 vaccine hesitant individuals. Therefore, identifying strategies to reduce vaccine hesitancy within this group is vital to ending the pandemic. In this study, we investigate the effectiveness of messages from co-partisan sources in reducing vaccine hesitancy. In a large (N=3000) and demographically representative survey, we find that exposing "Middle-of-the-Road" partisans to pro-vaccine messages from co-partisan source cues reduces vaccine hesitancy. However, for those who identify as "Strong" or "Weak" partisans, we find no statistically significant differences in vaccination intentions when exposed to pro-vaccine messages from co-partisan sources. We conclude by discussing how our findings are helpful for vaccine communication efforts.

published proceedings

  • J Behav Med

altmetric score

  • 29.95

author list (cited authors)

  • Sylvester, S., Motta, M., Trujillo, K. L., & Callaghan, T.

citation count

  • 5

complete list of authors

  • Sylvester, Steven||Motta, Matthew||Trujillo, Kristin Lunz||Callaghan, Timothy

publication date

  • April 2023