Will you get vaccinated? Trade‐offs between purity, liberty and care predict attitudes towards Covid‐19 vaccination

TY - JOUR

T1 - Will you get vaccinated? Trade‐offs between purity, liberty and care predict attitudes towards Covid‐19 vaccination

AU - Ahluwalia-McMeddes, Amrita

AU - Guthrie, Sarah L.

AU - Taylor, Catriona Z.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. European Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2024/3/5

Y1 - 2024/3/5

N2 - How do tensions between moral values predict how likely we are to receive Covid-19 vaccination? Previous work suggests that moral foundations, particularly purity and liberty, relate to decisions to vaccinate. In addition, research on the moral trade-off hypothesis suggests value in exploring trade-offs between foundations. We conducted three studies across the pandemic: at the start of the vaccine rollout (Study 1, N = 170); during delivery (Study 2, N = 328) and 2 years later (Study 3, N = 388). We find that trade-offs between purity and care and between liberty and care are predictive of higher levels of vaccine reluctance—individuals who endorse purity or liberty more, relative to care, were more reluctant towards Covid-19 vaccination, less likely to have received a vaccine and have lower intention to get future Covid-19 vaccines. This research highlights the relevance of moral values, and trade-offs between them, in vaccine attitudes and decisions.

AB - How do tensions between moral values predict how likely we are to receive Covid-19 vaccination? Previous work suggests that moral foundations, particularly purity and liberty, relate to decisions to vaccinate. In addition, research on the moral trade-off hypothesis suggests value in exploring trade-offs between foundations. We conducted three studies across the pandemic: at the start of the vaccine rollout (Study 1, N = 170); during delivery (Study 2, N = 328) and 2 years later (Study 3, N = 388). We find that trade-offs between purity and care and between liberty and care are predictive of higher levels of vaccine reluctance—individuals who endorse purity or liberty more, relative to care, were more reluctant towards Covid-19 vaccination, less likely to have received a vaccine and have lower intention to get future Covid-19 vaccines. This research highlights the relevance of moral values, and trade-offs between them, in vaccine attitudes and decisions.

KW - Covid-19

KW - moral foundations theory

KW - moral judgement

KW - moral trade-offs

KW - vaccination

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85186893387

U2 - 10.1002/ejsp.3057

DO - 10.1002/ejsp.3057

M3 - Article

SN - 0046-2772

JO - European Journal of Social Psychology

JF - European Journal of Social Psychology

ER -