IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i7p4205-d785127.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Implicit Attitudes toward Vaccination Affect Vaccine Hesitancy and Behaviour: Developing and Validating the V-IRAP

Author

Listed:
  • Luca Simione

    (Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR, 00185 Rome, Italy)

  • Monia Vagni

    (Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy)

  • Tiziana Maiorano

    (Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy)

  • Valeria Giostra

    (Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy)

  • Daniela Pajardi

    (Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029 Urbino, Italy)

Abstract

Vaccination is one of the most important ways of fighting infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. However, vaccine hesitancy and refusal can reduce adherence to vaccination campaigns, and therefore undermine their effectiveness. Although the scientific community has made great efforts to understand the psychological causes of vaccine hesitancy, studies on vaccine intention have usually relied on traditional detection techniques, such as questionnaires. Probing these constructs explicitly could be problematic due to defense mechanisms or social desirability. Thus, a measure capable of detecting implicit attitudes towards vaccination is needed. To achieve this aim, we designed and validated a new test called the Vaccine-IRAP, or V-IRAP, which is a modified version of the original Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure, or IRAP, task. The V-IRAP allows the unspoken reasons behind vaccine hesitancy to be investigated, and is able to distinguish between positive and negative beliefs on vaccination. The test was assessed in a sample of 151 participants. The V-IRAP showed good internal reliability and convergent validity, with meaningful correlational patterns with explicit measures. Moreover, it revealed incremental validity over such explicit measures. Lastly, the V-IRAP was able to shed light on the implicit attitudes involved in vaccine refusal, revealing negative attitudes relative to vaccine-related risks in non-vaccinated participants. Overall, these results support V-IRAP as a sensitive and reliable tool that could be used in future studies on implicit attitudes toward vaccination.

Suggested Citation

  • Luca Simione & Monia Vagni & Tiziana Maiorano & Valeria Giostra & Daniela Pajardi, 2022. "How Implicit Attitudes toward Vaccination Affect Vaccine Hesitancy and Behaviour: Developing and Validating the V-IRAP," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-18, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:4205-:d:785127
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4205/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4205/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrea Guazzini & Andrea Pesce & Lorena Marotta & Mirko Duradoni, 2022. "Through the Second Wave: Analysis of the Psychological and Perceptive Changes in the Italian Population during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-12, January.
    2. Zhaoxie Zeng & Yi Ding & Yue Zhang & Yongyu Guo, 2022. "What Breeds Conspiracy Theories in COVID-19? The Role of Risk Perception in the Belief in COVID-19 Conspiracy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-11, April.
    3. Laura Colautti & Alice Cancer & Sara Magenes & Alessandro Antonietti & Paola Iannello, 2022. "Risk-Perception Change Associated with COVID-19 Vaccine’s Side Effects: The Role of Individual Differences," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-14, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anna Rita Graziani & Lucia Botindari & Michela Menegatti & Silvia Moscatelli, 2022. "So Far, So Close: Identification with Proximal and Distal Groups as a Resource in Dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-20, September.
    2. Mirko Duradoni & Mustafa Can Gursesli & Letizia Materassi & Elena Serritella & Andrea Guazzini, 2022. "The Long-COVID Experience Changed People’s Vaccine Hesitancy but Not Their Vaccination Fear," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-13, November.
    3. Tabia Henry Akintobi & Rakale C. Quarells & Robert A. Bednarczyk & Saadia Khizer & Brittany D. Taylor & Michelle N. A. Nwagwu & Mekhi Hill & Claudia E. Ordóñez & Gaëlle Sabben & Sedessie Spivey & Kayl, 2023. "Community-Centered Assessment to Inform Pandemic Response in Georgia (US)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Yeon-Jun Choi & Julak Lee & Seung Yeop Paek, 2022. "Public Awareness and Sentiment toward COVID-19 Vaccination in South Korea: Findings from Big Data Analytics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-14, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marcella Paterlini & Erica Neri & Alessia Nicoli & Federica Genova & Maria Teresa Villani & Sara Santi & Francesca Agostini, 2022. "Emotions, Stress and Coping among Healthcare Workers in a Reproductive Medicine Unit during the First and Second COVID-19 Lockdowns," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Alessandro Miola & Stefano Caiolo & Giancarlo Pontoni & Erica Pozzan & Chiara Moriglia & Filippo Simionato & Sergio Garofalo & Giulia Perini & Fabio Sambataro, 2023. "Anxiety and Depression during the Second Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Coping Strategies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-16, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:4205-:d:785127. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.