Reexamining health messages in the political age: The politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic and its detrimental effects on vaccine hesitancy

Abstract

Our work investigates the extent to which the politicization of health science may have impacted consumers' vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic. This inter-disciplinary, multi-method manuscript reports the results of three empirical investigations designed to examine how the consumers' political leanings and the sources they rely on for information might influence their decisions to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. We explore how radically opposing viewpoints regarding the pandemic may have eroded public trust in government institutions and health science during the months leading up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In addition, we examine how consumers with opposing political leanings may be differentially influenced by promotional messages that represent the two dominant contrasting viewpoints regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Importantly, we find that low vaccine-hesitant Trump voters can be successfully targeted for pro-vaccination interventions using highly credible spokespeople, perceived to have high levels of expertise and trustworthiness.