Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom

Jamie Murphy; Frederique Vallières; Richard P. Bentall; M Shevlin; Orla McBride; Todd K Hartman; Ryan McKay; Kate M Bennett; Liam  Mason; Jilly Gibson Miller; Liat Levita; Anton P Martinez; Thomas V A Stocks; Thanos Karatzias; Philip  Hyland

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20226-9

Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom

Jamie Murphy, Frederique Vallières, Richard P. Bentall, M Shevlin, Orla McBride, Todd K Hartman, Ryan McKay, Kate M Bennett, Liam Mason, Jilly Gibson Miller, Liat Levita, Anton P Martinez, Thomas V A Stocks, Thanos Karatzias, Philip Hyland

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

905 Citations (Scopus)

131 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Identifying and understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy within distinct populations may aid future public health messaging. Using nationally representative data from the general adult populations of Ireland (N = 1041) and the United Kingdom (UK; N = 2025), we found that vaccine hesitancy/resistance was evident for 35% and 31% of these populations respectively. Vaccine hesitant/resistant respondents in Ireland and the UK differed on a number of sociodemographic and health-related variables but were similar across a broad array of psychological constructs. In both populations, those resistant to a COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to obtain information about the pandemic from traditional and authoritative sources and had similar levels of mistrust in these sources compared to vaccine accepting respondents. Given the geographical proximity and socio-economic similarity of the populations studied, it is not possible to generalize findings to other populations, however, the methodology employed here may be useful to those wishing to understand COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy elsewhere.

Original language	English
Article number	29
Pages (from-to)	1-15
Number of pages	15
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	12
Issue number	1
Early online date	4 Jan 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20226-9
Publication status	Published online - 4 Jan 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
R.M. acknowledges funding support from the Cogito Foundation (Grant Nr. R10917).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
COVID-19 Vaccines
COVID-19/prevention & control
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Ireland
Male
Middle Aged
Pandemics/prevention & control
Patient Acceptance of Health Care/psychology
SARS-CoV-2/immunology
Surveys and Questionnaires
United Kingdom
Vaccination Refusal/ethnology
Vaccination/psychology
Young Adult

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-020-20226-9Licence: CC BY

OA Published PaperFinal published version, 1.02 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

Murphy, J., Vallières, F., Bentall, R. P., Shevlin, M., McBride, O., Hartman, T. K., McKay, R., Bennett, K. M., Mason, L., Gibson Miller, J., Levita, L., Martinez, A. P., Stocks, T. V. A., Karatzias, T., & Hyland, P. (2021). Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Nature Communications, 12(1), 1-15. Article 29. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20226-9

@article{6175db51ca6c463485927ddccd0f8f1b,

title = "Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom",

abstract = "Identifying and understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy within distinct populations may aid future public health messaging. Using nationally representative data from the general adult populations of Ireland (N = 1041) and the United Kingdom (UK; N = 2025), we found that vaccine hesitancy/resistance was evident for 35% and 31% of these populations respectively. Vaccine hesitant/resistant respondents in Ireland and the UK differed on a number of sociodemographic and health-related variables but were similar across a broad array of psychological constructs. In both populations, those resistant to a COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to obtain information about the pandemic from traditional and authoritative sources and had similar levels of mistrust in these sources compared to vaccine accepting respondents. Given the geographical proximity and socio-economic similarity of the populations studied, it is not possible to generalize findings to other populations, however, the methodology employed here may be useful to those wishing to understand COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy elsewhere.",

keywords = "Adolescent, Adult, Aged, COVID-19 Vaccines, COVID-19/prevention & control, Female, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, Humans, Ireland, Male, Middle Aged, Pandemics/prevention & control, Patient Acceptance of Health Care/psychology, SARS-CoV-2/immunology, Surveys and Questionnaires, United Kingdom, Vaccination Refusal/ethnology, Vaccination/psychology, Young Adult",

author = "Jamie Murphy and Frederique Valli{\`e}res and Bentall, {Richard P.} and M Shevlin and Orla McBride and Hartman, {Todd K} and Ryan McKay and Bennett, {Kate M} and Liam Mason and {Gibson Miller}, Jilly and Liat Levita and Martinez, {Anton P} and Stocks, {Thomas V A} and Thanos Karatzias and Philip Hyland",

note = "Funding Information: R.M. acknowledges funding support from the Cogito Foundation (Grant Nr. R10917). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",

year = "2021",

month = jan,

day = "4",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-020-20226-9",

language = "English",

volume = "12",

pages = "1--15",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Springer Nature",

number = "1",

}

Murphy, J, Vallières, F, Bentall, RP, Shevlin, M , McBride, O, Hartman, TK, McKay, R, Bennett, KM, Mason, L, Gibson Miller, J, Levita, L, Martinez, AP, Stocks, TVA, Karatzias, T & Hyland, P 2021, 'Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom', Nature Communications, vol. 12, no. 1, 29, pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20226-9

TY - JOUR

T1 - Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom

AU - Murphy, Jamie

AU - Vallières, Frederique

AU - Bentall, Richard P.

AU - Shevlin, M

AU - McBride, Orla

AU - Hartman, Todd K

AU - McKay, Ryan

AU - Bennett, Kate M

AU - Mason, Liam

AU - Gibson Miller, Jilly

AU - Levita, Liat

AU - Martinez, Anton P

AU - Stocks, Thomas V A

AU - Karatzias, Thanos

AU - Hyland, Philip

N1 - Funding Information: R.M. acknowledges funding support from the Cogito Foundation (Grant Nr. R10917). Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/1/4

Y1 - 2021/1/4

N2 - Identifying and understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy within distinct populations may aid future public health messaging. Using nationally representative data from the general adult populations of Ireland (N = 1041) and the United Kingdom (UK; N = 2025), we found that vaccine hesitancy/resistance was evident for 35% and 31% of these populations respectively. Vaccine hesitant/resistant respondents in Ireland and the UK differed on a number of sociodemographic and health-related variables but were similar across a broad array of psychological constructs. In both populations, those resistant to a COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to obtain information about the pandemic from traditional and authoritative sources and had similar levels of mistrust in these sources compared to vaccine accepting respondents. Given the geographical proximity and socio-economic similarity of the populations studied, it is not possible to generalize findings to other populations, however, the methodology employed here may be useful to those wishing to understand COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy elsewhere.

AB - Identifying and understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy within distinct populations may aid future public health messaging. Using nationally representative data from the general adult populations of Ireland (N = 1041) and the United Kingdom (UK; N = 2025), we found that vaccine hesitancy/resistance was evident for 35% and 31% of these populations respectively. Vaccine hesitant/resistant respondents in Ireland and the UK differed on a number of sociodemographic and health-related variables but were similar across a broad array of psychological constructs. In both populations, those resistant to a COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to obtain information about the pandemic from traditional and authoritative sources and had similar levels of mistrust in these sources compared to vaccine accepting respondents. Given the geographical proximity and socio-economic similarity of the populations studied, it is not possible to generalize findings to other populations, however, the methodology employed here may be useful to those wishing to understand COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy elsewhere.

KW - Adolescent

KW - Adult

KW - Aged

KW - COVID-19 Vaccines

KW - COVID-19/prevention & control

KW - Female

KW - Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

KW - Humans

KW - Ireland

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Pandemics/prevention & control

KW - Patient Acceptance of Health Care/psychology

KW - SARS-CoV-2/immunology

KW - Surveys and Questionnaires

KW - United Kingdom

KW - Vaccination Refusal/ethnology

KW - Vaccination/psychology

KW - Young Adult

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098621908&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-20226-9

DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-20226-9

M3 - Article

C2 - 33397962

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 12

SP - 1

EP - 15

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

IS - 1

M1 - 29

ER -

Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this