NSF-BSF: Willingness to Vaccinate Against COVID-19: Psychological Mechanisms and Ways to Increase Responsiveness

新冠肺炎疫情已经夺走了全球400多万人的生命，超过1.9亿人受到不同程度的影响。针对冠状病毒的疫苗极大地减少了感染人数，挽救了数百万人的生命。然而，尽管疫苗已被证明是高效的，其安全性状况令人满意，但在大多数国家，仍有相对较大比例的人反对，他们危及本国乃至全世界的全体人口。由于新冠肺炎继续对人类构成威胁，了解这种耐药性的原因并找到提高疫苗接种率的方法至关重要。这项研究依赖于前人对恐怖管理理论的研究，以及最近对人们死后捐赠器官意愿的研究，提出可能解释人们对疫苗抵抗力的心理机制，并提供有效的干预措施来提高疫苗接种率。鉴于让更多人接种疫苗的必要性，了解人们对Covid疫苗持负面态度和不愿接种疫苗背后的原因非常重要。这项研究分析了可能影响人们对冠状病毒的态度以及他们是否接种新冠肺炎疫苗的多个因素。这项研究包括11个实验，反映了两个研究方向：第一部分(第一部分)考察了不同对新冠肺炎的描述对人们接种疫苗的态度和意愿的影响。增加救生(而不是死亡)想法的操作可能会压倒可能对疫苗产生负面态度的防御机制，从而增加接种疫苗的意愿。其他研究操纵现状(做出不接种疫苗的决定)，并检查对风险认知和增加接种意愿的影响。研究的第二部分集中在恐惧和信念上的个体差异，这些恐惧和信念被认为在人们关于疫苗接种的决定中起着重要作用，包括对死亡的恐惧、宗教信仰、对公正世界的信念和对命运的信念。该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会和美以双边科学基金会的合作伙伴关系的支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed the lives of over 4 million people worldwide, and over 190 million people have been affected in varying degrees of severity. The vaccine against the coronavirus has dramatically reduced the number of infected people, saving the lives of millions. However, although the vaccine has been proved to be highly effective, and its safety profile is satisfactory, in most countries there is still a relatively large percentage of people who are opposed, who endanger the entire population in their country as well as worldwide. Since COVID-19 continues to pose a threat to humans, it is essential to understand what causes this resistance and to find ways to increase vaccination rates. This research relies on previous works on terror management theory, as well as on insights from recent work on people's willingness to donate organs after death, to suggest psychological mechanisms that may explain people’s resistance to the vaccine, and to offer effective interventions to increase vaccination rates.Given the necessity of getting more people vaccinated, understanding the reasons behind peoples’ negative attitudes towards Covid vaccines and their reluctance to be vaccinated is of great importance. This research analyzes the multiple factors that may influence people’s attitudes toward the coronavirus and their decisions to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or not. The study entails 11 experiments reflecting two research directions: The first (Part I) examines the influence of different descriptions of COVID-19 on people’s attitudes and willingness to be vaccinated. Manipulations to increase thoughts of life saving (rather than death) may override defense mechanisms that might create negative attitudes toward the vaccine, thus increasing willingness to vaccinate. Additional studies manipulate the status quo (making the decision not to vaccinate a deviation from the default) and examine the effect on risk perceptions and on increasing willingness to vaccinate. Part II of the studies focus on individual differences in fears and beliefs that are hypothesized to play a major role in people’s decisions about vaccination, including the fear of death, religious beliefs, belief in a just world and belief in tempting fate.This project is being supported by a partnership between the National Science Foundation and the U.S.-Israel Bi-national Science Foundation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.