DOES VACCINE SCARCITY INFLUENCE THE EFFECT OF CONSPIRACY BELIEFS ON INTENTION TO VACCINATE AGAINST COVID-19?

Abstract

"Vaccination against Covid-19, a major public health issue, comes up against many fears that fuel strong vaccine hesitancy, when it is not rejected. The main explanation that is used to explain it is the adherence to conspiracy theories (ACT) (Keeley, 1999). However, the literature provides contradictory results about the ACT effects on compliance with health recommendations (e.g., Allington et al., 2020; Díaz and Cova, 2020; Imhoff & Lamberty, 2020). Furthermore, psychological reactance (PR) (Brehm, 1966) moderates the relationship between ACT and vaccine intentions (Bordarie & Plichon, 2021). In other words, the more individuals adhere to conspiracy theories, the less they have the intention to get vaccinated; and this effect is even stronger when they also are reactant, i.e., they feel their freedom of choice threatened. This study tries to supply a more global model by integrating the perceived scarcity of vaccines as a moderator of the relationship between PR and/or ACT and vaccine intentions. The sample consisted of 715 participants (59.6% female and 40.4% male) with a mean age of 45.17 years (SD = 18.7). The questionnaire included 3 standardised scales, measuring respectively PR (14 items), ACT (5 items), perceived scarcity (4 items) and 2 items measuring vaccine intention. The results confirmed the tools internal consistency. Linear regression analyses confirmed the role of both PR and ACT on vaccine intention. The scarcity does not influence the relationship between PR and intentions, neither the one between ACT and intentions. However, scarcity moderates the link between PR and ACT (p=.02) confirming the highly complex relationship that individuals can have with conspiracy beliefs. The intention to get vaccinated against Covid-19 is under influence of both PR and ACT and we also know that PR moderates the relationship between ACT and intention. The moderating effect of scarcity between PR and ACT testify that the ACT depends on other external variables and could be the consequence of the context, more than a disposition to ACT. Thus, in general we can say that the more reactant people are, the more they adhere to conspiracy theories; but this positive effect is less important when people perceived a higher vaccine scarcity. These results open perspectives for vaccinal strategies and information or awareness campaigns in order to convince the most hesitant participants."