IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0236527.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trait reactance and trust in doctors as predictors of vaccination behavior, vaccine attitudes, and use of complementary and alternative medicine in parents of young children

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Soveri
  • Linda C Karlsson
  • Otto Mäki
  • Jan Antfolk
  • Otto Waris
  • Hasse Karlsson
  • Linnea Karlsson
  • Mikael Lindfelt
  • Stephan Lewandowsky

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether anti-vaccination attitudes and behavior, and positive attitudes to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), are driven by trait reactance and a distrust in medical doctors. Methods: The sample consisted of 770 Finnish parents who filled out an online survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine if trait reactance plays a role in vaccination decisions, vaccine attitudes, and in the use of CAM, and whether that relationship is mediated by trust in medical doctors. Results: Parents with higher trait reactance had lower trust in doctors, more negative attitudes to vaccines, a higher likelihood of not accepting vaccines for their children and themselves, and a higher likelihood to use CAM treatments that are not included in evidence-based medicine. Our analyses also revealed associations between vaccination behavior and CAM use and vaccine attitudes and CAM use, but there was no support for the previous notion that these associations would be explained by trait reactance and trust in doctors. Conclusions: Taken together, higher trait reactance seems to be relevant for attitudes and behaviors that go against conventional medicine, because trait reactance is connected to a distrust in medical doctors. Our findings also suggest that high trait reactance and low trust in doctors function differently for different people: For some individuals they might be associated with anti-vaccination attitudes and behavior, while for others they might be related to CAM use. We speculate that this is because people differ in what is important to them, leading them to react against different aspects of conventional medicine.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Soveri & Linda C Karlsson & Otto Mäki & Jan Antfolk & Otto Waris & Hasse Karlsson & Linnea Karlsson & Mikael Lindfelt & Stephan Lewandowsky, 2020. "Trait reactance and trust in doctors as predictors of vaccination behavior, vaccine attitudes, and use of complementary and alternative medicine in parents of young children," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0236527
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236527
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0236527
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0236527&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0236527?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saad B. Omer & Cornelia Betsch & Julie Leask, 2019. "Mandate vaccination with care," Nature, Nature, vol. 571(7766), pages 469-472, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Leah Roberts & Michael J. Deml & Katie Attwell, 2023. "‘COVID Is Coming, and I’m Bloody Scared’: How Adults with Co-Morbidities’ Threat Perceptions of COVID-19 Shape Their Vaccination Decisions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-17, February.
    2. Katie Attwell & Tauel Harper & Marco Rizzi & Jeannette Taylor & Virginia Casigliani & Filippo Quattrone & PierLuigi Lopalco, 2021. "Inaction, under-reaction action and incapacity: communication breakdown in Italy’s vaccination governance," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(3), pages 457-475, September.
    3. Alex Moehring & Avinash Collis & Kiran Garimella & M. Amin Rahimian & Sinan Aral & Dean Eckles, 2023. "Providing normative information increases intentions to accept a COVID-19 vaccine," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Katie Attwell & Adam Hannah & Shevaun Drislane & Tauel Harper & Glenn C. Savage & Jordan Tchilingirian, 2024. "Media actors as policy entrepreneurs: a case study of “No Jab, No Play” and “No Jab, No Pay” mandatory vaccination policies in Australia," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 57(1), pages 29-51, March.
    5. Cornelia Betsch & Philipp Schmid & Pierre Verger & Stephan Lewandowsky & Anna Soveri & Ralph Hertwig & Angelo Fasce & Dawn Holford & Paul Raeve & Arnaud Gagneur & Pia Vuolanto & Tiago Correia & Lara T, 2022. "A call for immediate action to increase COVID-19 vaccination uptake to prepare for the third pandemic winter," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-6, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:plo:pone00:0236527. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.