Declared Intention to Vaccinate against COVID-19 and Actual Vaccination-The Role of Trust in Science, Conspiratorial Thinking and Religiosity

Józef Maciuszek; Mateusz Polak; Katarzyna Stasiuk; Jerzy Rosiński

doi:10.3390/vaccines11020262

Declared Intention to Vaccinate against COVID-19 and Actual Vaccination-The Role of Trust in Science, Conspiratorial Thinking and Religiosity

Vaccines (Basel). 2023 Jan 25;11(2):262. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11020262.

Authors

Józef Maciuszek¹, Mateusz Polak¹, Katarzyna Stasiuk¹, Jerzy Rosiński²

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Applied Psychology, Faculty of Management and Communication, Jagiellonian University, 31-007 Krakow, Poland.
² Institute of Economy, Finance and Management, Faculty of Management and Communication, Jagiellonian University, 31-007 Krakow, Poland.

Abstract

Aims: The study aims to investigate how trust in science, conspiratorial thinking, and religiosity affected people's declared willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19 at the onset of the vaccination program in Poland, their actual vaccination, and the consistency between intention and vaccination.

Methods: In a longitudinal design, a representative sample of 918 members of the Polish general population was polled at the beginning of the vaccination program (February 2021) and polled again after 6 months of mass vaccination (August 2021). We measured the willingness to vaccinate, actual vaccination after 6 months, and individual variables-trust in science, conspiratorial thinking and religiosity.

Results: The actual vaccination rate was higher than the declared intent, especially in the initially undecided and unwilling groups. Higher Trust in science and lower Conspiratorial Thinking were associated with declared intent to vaccinate and actual vaccination, while Religiosity was not clearly associated with vaccination.

Conclusions: Declared willingness to vaccinate is not an effective indicator of actual vaccination. Trust in science and Conspiratorial thinking are important factors associated with vaccine hesitancy. There may be a possibility to influence those unwilling to vaccinate and that are undecided to eventually get vaccinated.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccination; actual vaccination; conspiratorial thinking; religiosity; trust in science; willingness to vaccinate.

Grants and funding

The research and the publication was funded by the budget of the program “Excellence Initiative—Research University” at the Jagiellonian University. Funding number U1U/W21/NO/06. Funder: Jagiellonian University.