Exposure to objective/sensationalist information moderates associations between psychological factors and COVID-19 anti-vaccination attitudes: An experimental study.

Background: Research examining the relationship between psychological factors and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has been mostly based on observational designs, with little attention devoted to the role of exposure to objective/sensationalist information.

Purpose: This experimental study examined the extent to which exposure to objective or sensationalist news headlines: 1) influenced COVID-19 anti-vaccination attitudes; and 2) moderated the relationship between psychological factors and COVID-19 anti-vaccination attitudes.

Methods: 123 participants (mean age = 28.55, SD = 11.44) completed measures of psychological factors previously associated with vaccine hesitancy (i.e. social norms regarding COVID-19, adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), perceived health competence, trust in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, and COVID-19 risk perception). Next, participants were randomly assigned to view nine print news headlines about COVID-19 vaccines that were depicted in objective or sensationalist terms. Finally, participants completed a measure of COVID-19 anti-vaccination attitudes. A t-test and simple slope analyses were performed to assess whether there were group differences in COVID-19 anti-vaccination attitudes between participants exposed to objective or sensationalist information, and whether exposure to objective or sensationalist information moderated the relationship between psychological factors and COVID-19 anti-vaccination attitudes, respectively.

Results: Participants exposed to sensationalist news headlines reported stronger COVID-19 anti-vaccination attitudes than those exposed to objective headlines. Exposure to objective or sensationalist news headlines moderated the relationship between several psychological factors (i.e. adherence to NPIs, perceived health competence, and trust in CAM) and COVID-19 anti-vaccination attitudes.

Conclusions: The results highlight that a joint focus on psychological factors and exposure to objective/sensationalist information may contribute to gain a better understanding of vaccine hesitancy in the context of the COVID-19 infodemic.