The Role of Personality and Experience in Vaccine Hesitancy and Harm Concern

Abstract

This research study is an exploratory analysis of the role of vaccine experiences and personality in vaccine hesitancy and vaccine harm concern. Two hundred and thirty-one participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and compensated for completing the survey. The results indicated positive correlations between all personality measures (conspiracist ideation, neuroticism, extraversion, schizotypy, paranoia, probabilities and coincidences, and attitudes towards science) and belief measures (vaccine harm concern and vaccine hesitancy). There was also a significant positive correlation between the types of negative vaccine experiences (personal, close others, story, and social media) and the personality and belief measures. The results demonstrate that a negative experience with vaccines is associated with a higher amount of vaccine hesitancy and harm concern.