The Relationship between Vaccine Experience and Vaccine Harm Belief

Abstract

The research reported here evaluates the relationship between vaccine experiences and harm beliefs related to vaccines. Multiple dimensions of experience were evaluated, including personal experience, an experience of a close personal other, and information from the media. Participants also completed belief and personality measures that might help to understand any relationships between experience and belief. The results were that personal and close others’ experience were strongly associated with vaccine harm belief. These results have potential implications for developing interventions to reduce vaccine harm beliefs.