Active pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine groups: Their group identities and attitudes toward science

Józef Maciuszek; Mateusz Polak; Katarzyna Stasiuk; Dariusz Doliński

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0261648

Active pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine groups: Their group identities and attitudes toward science

PLoS One. 2021 Dec 30;16(12):e0261648. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261648. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Józef Maciuszek¹, Mateusz Polak¹, Katarzyna Stasiuk¹, Dariusz Doliński²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Management and Social Communication, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
² Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology in Wroclaw, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wroclaw, Poland.

Abstract

Vaccine rejection is a problem severely impacting the global society, especially considering the COVID-19 outbreak. The need to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying the active involvement of the pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine movements is therefore very important both from a theoretical and practical perspective. This paper investigates the group identities of people with positive and negative attitudes towards vaccination, and their attitudes toward general science. A targeted sample study of 192 pro-vaccine and 156 anti-vaccine group members showed that the group identity of pro-vaccine individuals is higher than of anti-vaccine individuals. and that both pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine individuals had a positive attitude toward science. Results are discussed in context of the heterogeneity of motivations causing vaccine rejection and the relation between active involvement in online discussion and group identity.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Anti-Vaccination Movement*
Attitude
COVID-19 Vaccines / administration & dosage
COVID-19* / prevention & control
COVID-19* / psychology
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Online Social Networking
Pandemics / prevention & control*
Surveys and Questionnaires
Vaccination / psychology*
Young Adult

Substances

COVID-19 Vaccines

Grants and funding

The publication was funded by the Priority Research Area Society of the Future under the program “Excellence Initiative – Research University” at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. https://id.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/ The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.