Social Psychology and News Reporting on COVID-19 Vaccination

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  • 新型コロナワクチン接種をめぐる社会心理と報道
  • 新型コロナワクチン接種をめぐる社会心理と報道 : インターネット調査から考える
  • シンガタ コロナワクチン セッシュ オ メグル シャカイ シンリ ト ホウドウ : インターネット チョウサ カラ カンガエル
  • Consideration Based on an Internet Survey
  • インターネット調査から考える

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Prior to the start of COVID-19 vaccination to senior citizens (April 2021), the author conducted an internet survey to investigate social psychology on vaccination and examine news reporting on it. The key findings and discussion are as follows. - Intention for vaccination and attributes of respondents: 73% of the entire respondents intended to get vaccinated. The figures were lower among the age-groups of 20s and 30s. Those “yet to decide” were predominantly women. Those regularly receiving flu vaccination tended to have a strong intention to get vaccinated. - Trust in the safety and efficacy of the vaccine: Many chose “I trust the vaccine to some extent,” which shows people do not have full confidence. Nevertheless, of those who “don't put much trust in the safety of the vaccine,”“ 45% were set to take inoculation. The result suggests the psychology of accepting vaccination out of fear of infection.” - Reasons for vaccine acceptance and hesitancy: “Expecting a herd immunity effect” was third-most cited by respondents intending to get vaccinated. “Safety concerns” and “doubting the efficacy” were cited by many in vaccine-hesitant respondents (including “yet to decide” group). - Reasons for safety concerns: The most-cited reason among vaccine-hesitant group was “concerns over unknown strong adverse reactions.” They are presumably afraid of using unprecedented types of vaccines that were developed in a short period of time. - News reporting on the safety: Not fully trusted. Among vaccine-hesitant respondents, many became concerned about the safety as they watched or listened to TV or radio news. In this survey, too, reports on post-vaccination anaphylaxis and death cases (their causal relation with vaccination were unverified) were criticized for fueling anxiety. For news media organizations covering these topics, the first priority should be accurately presenting public agencies' views (on the probability of symptoms occurring, causal relation, etc.) and efforts for preventing groundless concerns and misinformation about vaccination from spreading unnecessarily.

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