Department of Economics, Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
PLoS One. 2022 Jun 28;17(6):e0270666. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270666. eCollection 2022.
Many countries, such as Germany, struggle to vaccinate enough people against COVID-19 despite the availability of safe and efficient vaccines. With new variants emerging and the need for booster vaccinations, overcoming vaccination hesitancy gains importance. The research to date has revealed some promising, albeit contentious, interventions to increase vaccination intention. However, these have yet to be tested for their effectiveness in increasing vaccination rates.
METHODS & RESULTS: We conducted a preregistered survey experiment with N = 1,324 participants in Germany in May/June 2021. This was followed by a series of emails reminding participants to get vaccinated in August and concluded with a follow-up survey in September. We experimentally assess whether debunking vaccination myths, highlighting the benefits of being vaccinated, or sending vaccination reminders decreases hesitancy. In the survey experiment, we find no increase in the intention to vaccinate regardless of the information provided. However, communicating vaccination benefits over several weeks reduced the likelihood of not being vaccinated by 9 percentage points, which translates into a 27% reduction compared to the control group. Debunking vaccination myths and reminders alone also decreased the likelihood, yet not significantly.
Our findings suggest that if soft governmental interventions such as information campaigns are employed, highlighting benefits should be given preference over debunking vaccination myths. Furthermore, it seems that repeated messages affect vaccination action while one-time messages might be insufficient, even for increasing vaccination intentions. Our study highlights the importance of testing interventions outside of survey experiments that are limited to measuring vaccination intentions-not actions-and immediate changes in attitudes and intentions-not long-term changes.
尽管有安全有效的疫苗，但许多国家（如德国）仍难以为足够多的人接种疫苗以预防 COVID-19。随着新变种的出现和加强针接种的需要，克服疫苗犹豫变得越来越重要。迄今为止的研究已经揭示了一些有希望的、尽管存在争议的干预措施，以增加疫苗接种意愿。然而，这些措施尚未经过测试，以评估其在提高疫苗接种率方面的有效性。
我们于 2021 年 5 月/6 月在德国进行了一项有 1324 名参与者的预注册调查实验。随后，我们通过一系列电子邮件提醒参与者接种疫苗，并于 8 月进行了跟进调查，于 9 月结束。我们通过实验评估了揭穿疫苗接种谣言、强调接种疫苗的好处或发送接种提醒是否会降低犹豫感。在调查实验中，我们发现无论提供何种信息，接种意愿都没有增加。然而，通过数周传达接种益处，可以将不接种的可能性降低 9 个百分点，与对照组相比，这意味着降低了 27%。单独揭穿疫苗接种谣言和提醒也降低了不接种的可能性，但没有显著差异。
我们的研究结果表明，如果采用软性政府干预措施（如信息宣传活动），强调接种益处应优先于揭穿疫苗接种谣言。此外，似乎重复的信息比一次性信息更能影响接种行为，即使是为了提高接种意愿。我们的研究强调了在调查实验之外测试干预措施的重要性，这些干预措施不仅限于测量接种意愿，还需要测量行动；不仅限于测量态度和意愿的即时变化，还需要测量长期变化。
