A social norms approach intervention to address misperceptions of anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs amongst UK parents.


Journal

PloS one
ISSN: 1932-6203
Titre abrégé: PLoS One
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101285081

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
2021
Historique:
received: 05 05 2021
accepted: 10 10 2021
entrez: 12 11 2021
pubmed: 13 11 2021
medline: 31 12 2021
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs among parents can reduce vaccination intentions. Parents' beliefs in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories are also related to their perceptions of other parents' conspiracy beliefs. Further, research has shown that parents hold misperceptions of anti-vaccine conspiracy belief norms: UK parents over-estimate the anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs of other parents. The present study tested the effectiveness of a Social Norms Approach intervention, which corrects misperceptions using normative feedback, to reduce UK parents' anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and increase vaccination intentions. At baseline, 202 UK parents of young children reported their personal belief in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, future intentions to vaccinate, and their perceptions of other UK parents' beliefs and intentions. Participants were then randomly assigned to a normative feedback condition (n = 89) or an assessment-only control condition (n = 113). The normative feedback compared participants' personal anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and perceptions of other UK parents' beliefs with actual normative belief levels. Parents receiving the normative feedback showed significantly reduced personal belief in anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs at immediate post-test. As hypothesised, changes in normative perceptions of anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs mediated the effect of the intervention. The intervention, did not directly increase vaccination intentions, however mediation analysis showed that the normative feedback increased perceptions of other parents' vaccination intentions, which in turn increased personal vaccination intentions. No significant effects remained after a six-week follow-up. The current research demonstrates the potential utility of Social Norms Approach interventions for correcting misperceptions and reducing anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs among UK parents. Further research could explore utilising a top-up intervention to maintain the efficacy.

Identifiants

pubmed: 34767581
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258985
pii: PONE-D-21-14907
pmc: PMC8589151
doi:

Types de publication

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

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

e0258985

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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Auteurs

Darel Cookson (D)

Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Daniel Jolley (D)

Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.

Robert C Dempsey (RC)

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom.

Rachel Povey (R)

The Staffordshire Centre for Psychological Research, School of Life Sciences and Education, Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom.

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