Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy : Survey and Experimental Evidence from Papua New Guinea

This paper examines the drivers of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and tests various means ofincreasing people’s willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The study draws on data collected through a broadlyrepresentative phone survey with 2,533 respondents and an online randomized survey experiment with 2,392 participantsin Papua New Guinea. Both surveys show that less than 20 percent of the respondents who were aware a vaccine existedwere willing to be vaccinated. The main reason respondents stated for their hesitancy regarding the vaccine was concernabout side effects; however, the majority also said health workers could change their mind, particularly if informationwas communicated in person. The phone survey illustrated that people’s level of trust in the vaccine and theirbeliefs about the behavior of others are strongly associated with their intention to get a COVID-19 vaccine. In contrast,people’s concern about COVID-19, most trusted source of information (including social media), and vaccinationhistory were unrelated to their intention to get vaccinated. The online experiment showed that a message that emphasizedthe relative safety of the vaccine by highlighting that severe side effects are rare, while also emphasizing thedangers of COVID-19, increased intention to get vaccinated by around 50 percent. Collectively, these results suggestthat policy makers would be well placed to direct their efforts to boosting the general population’s trust thatgetting vaccinated substantially reduces the risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19.