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The effect of trust and proximity on vaccine propensity

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  • Florian Justwan
  • Bert Baumgaertner
  • Juliet E Carlisle
  • Emma Carson
  • Jordan Kizer

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to study the effects of (1) trust in government medical experts and (2) proximity to a recent disease outbreak on vaccine propensity. More specifically, we explore how these variables affect attitudes with regards to measles. Using original survey data, collected in January/February 2017, we obtain three main empirical findings. First, contrary to our expectations, an individual’s proximity to a recent measles outbreak has no independent effect on vaccination attitudes. Second, corroborating previous studies in the field, we find that trust in institutions such as the CDC has a positive effect on our dependent variable. Third, there is a significant interactive relationship between proximity and trust in governmental medical experts. While distance from a previous measles outbreak has no effect on vaccination attitudes for respondents with medium or high levels of trust, the variable exerts a negative effect for subjects with little confidence in government medical experts. In other words: low-trust individuals who live farther away from a recent measles outbreak harbor less favorable views about vaccination for this particular disease than low-trust respondents who live close to an affected area. This implies that citizens who are skeptical of the CDC and similar institutions base their vaccination decision-making to some degree on whether or not a given disease occurs in close vicinity to their community.

Suggested Citation

  • Florian Justwan & Bert Baumgaertner & Juliet E Carlisle & Emma Carson & Jordan Kizer, 2019. "The effect of trust and proximity on vaccine propensity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0220658
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220658
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    References listed on IDEAS

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