Self-transcendence values, vaccine hesitancy, and COVID-19 vaccination: some results from Italy

Abstract

Despite the relevance of vaccination as one of the greatest successes of public health, many individuals nurture doubts over vaccines and choose to delay or refuse vaccination, despite its availability. This study investigates whether – independently of support for government restrictions, conspiracy beliefs, and informational contamination – benevolence and universalism values separately relate to COVID-19 vaccination uptake via attitudes toward vaccines. The mediational analyses, carried out via MPLUS on 214 Italian participants who had completed an online questionnaire, show that universalism was related to the decision to get vaccinated through the mediation of attitudes toward vaccines, whereas benevolence is related to it only directly. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the individual factors playing a role in COVID-19 vaccination uptake.