2021/11/01 by Samuel Stroope, Rhiannon A. Kroeger, Courtney E. Williams +2 · 25 citations
Medicine · Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Confounding #Conservatism #Demography #Educational attainment #Ethnic group #Mediation #Medicine #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Political science #Politics #Psychological intervention #Psychology #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Public health interventions #Sociology #Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy
paper · open access · doi:10.1111/ssqu.13081
published in Social Science Quarterly 102(6), 2472-2481 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2021/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Abstract Objective Vaccine hesitancy remains a significant public health challenge, and one that is socially patterned. This study examined whether the vaccine hesitancy effects of identifying as female, race–ethnicity, the number of children, educational attainment, and political conservatism were mediated by governmental conspiracy beliefs. Methods Linear mediation models controlling for potential confounders were employed to analyze data from a national survey of adults (2019 Chapman University Survey of American Fears; n = 1,209). Results Effects on vaccine hesitancy were significant and negative for educational attainment, and significant and positive for the other focal predictors. Governmental conspiracy beliefs significantly mediated each of these effects; the percent mediated was largest for Hispanic identity (79 percent), followed by female identification (69 percent), educational attainment (69 percent), number of children (55 percent), black identification (34 percent), and political conservatism (30 percent). Conclusion This study underscores the importance of nonvaccine‐related conspiracy beliefs for future interventions aimed at reducing sociodemographic disparities in vaccine hesitancy.