The correlates and intensity of COVID-19 vaccine brand preferences in Canada

Most work on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has focused on its attitudinal and demographic correlates of individuals, but the characteristics of vaccines themselves also appear to be important. People are more willing to take vaccines with higher reported levels of efficacy and safety. Has this dynamic sparked hesitancy towards specific vaccines? We conduct a series of cross-sectional survey experiments to test for brand-based differences in vaccination intention, perceived efficacy, and perceived safety. Examining more than 6,500 individuals in a series of cross-sectional surveys, we find that respondents report less willingness to take AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines compared to those from Pfizer and Moderna, despite all vaccines being approved as safe by a federal regulator. Further, these brand preferences are meaningful: respondents report willingness to wait months for their preferred vaccine over AstraZeneca. We show that these brand effects are strongest among people who are usually most open to mass vaccination efforts. Our findings call for additional research on the determinants and consequences of COVID-19 vaccine-specific hesitancy and communication strategies to minimize this challenge.

Outrage Fatigue? Cognitive Costs and Decisions to Blame

Across nine studies (N=1,672), we assessed the link between cognitive costs and the choice to express outrage by blaming. We developed the Blame Selection Task, a binary free-choice paradigm that examines the propensity to blame transgressors (versus an alternative choice)—either before or after reading vignettes and viewing images of moral transgressions. We hypothesized that participants’ choice to blame wrongdoers would negatively relate to how cognitively inefficacious, effortful, and aversive blaming feels (compared to the alternative choice). With vignettes, participants approached blaming and reported that blaming felt more efficacious. With images, participants avoided blaming and reported that blaming felt more inefficacious, effortful, and aversive. Blame choice was greater for vignette-based transgressions than image-based transgressions. Blame choice was positively related to moral personality constructs, blame-related social-norms, and perceived efficacy of blaming, and inversely related to perceived effort and aversiveness of blaming. The BST is a valid behavioral index of blame propensity, and choosing to blame is linked to its cognitive costs.

Awareness, Perceived Efficacy, and Utilization of Assisted Reproductive Technologies Among Women Attending Infertility Clinic in a Nigerian Tertiary Health Institution: A Cross-Sectional Study

BackgroundInfertility is a source of distress for couples considering the high accolade placed on having children in family settings in Nigeria. Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) offer a chance of parenthood to couples. However, studies on knowledge of ART abound in Nigeria but no previous studies exist on the extent of utilization of assisted reproductive technologies. This study thus explored the level of awareness, perceived efficacy and utilization of ARTs among women attending infertility Clinic in a Nigerian Tertiary Health Institution.Methods This cross-sectional study which utilized a self-administered questionnaire was adopted for this study. The questionnaire contains five sections with section A to E bordering on demographics, awareness, perceived efficacy, utilization, and factors influencing utilization respectivelyResultsOne hundred and seven women with infertility problems, aged between 26-35 years with a mean age of 31.46 ± 5.72 participated in the study. Sixty-two patients (57.9%) were aware of ARTs while 97 (90.7%) believed that ART cannot address male infertility. Only 27 (25.2%) admitted to have used ART procedures before while 82 patients (76.6%) stated that cost of the procedure was the major hindrance to use. Conclusions Awareness of ARTs is average while there is low utilization and perceived efficacy of ART. High cost of the procedure remains the major setback to its utilization

Influences of study design on the effectiveness of consensus messaging: The case of medicinal cannabis

This study examines to what extent study design decisions influence the perceived efficacy of consensus messaging, using medicinal cannabis as the context. We find that researchers’ decisions about study design matter. A modified Solomon Group Design was used in which participants were either assigned to a group that had a pretest (within-subjects design) or a posttest only group (between-subjects design). Furthermore, participants were exposed to one of three messages—one of two consensus messages or a control message—attributed to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. A consensus message describing a percent (97%) of agreeing scientists was more effective at shifting public attitudes than a consensus message citing substantial evidence, but this was only true in the between-subject comparisons. Participants tested before and after exposure to a message demonstrated pre-sensitization effects that undermined the goals of the messages. Our results identify these nuances to the effectiveness of scientific consensus messaging, while serving to reinforce the importance of study design.

What Went Wrong? Predictors of Contact Tracing Adoption in Italy during COVID-19 Pandemic

Together with vaccines, contact tracing systems (CTS) have proved to be one of the best strategies to deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, the adoption of such systems has been quite limited in EU countries, and Italy was no exception. The present research aimed to investigate the factors drawn from the most relevant psychological models in the literature, most associated with the adoption of CTS. The data analysis of the 501 surveyed answers (329 from CTS adopters) showed that knowing important others who have downloaded the CTS, CTS attitudes, CTS perceived efficacy, COVID-19 risk perception, and trust in the government and its actions influenced the adoption of the Italian CTS (52% of explained variance). These factors defined a new specific model that can be used to more effectively promote CTS adoption and thus increase the protective potential of these technologies, whose effectiveness is inevitably linked to adoption.

Applying the Integrative Model to Predict Intention to Use Corporal Punishment Among Low-income Parents

Child corporal punishment (CP) is associated with child physical abuse, which is a public health problem in the United States. Informed by the integrative model of behavioral prediction, this study surveyed low-income Black, Hispanic, and White parents who had children younger than 6 years old ( N = 260) to identify major risk factors that determined intention to use CP to discipline children. Structural equation modeling revealed that attitudes, descriptive norms, and perceived efficacy of alternative discipline strategies were associated with intention to use CP. Additionally, parents’ childhood CP frequency and past use of CP with their own children were influential distal variables that indirectly predicted CP intention. Results indicated the utility of the model in this behavioral context. Communication intervention programs targeting low-income parents should leverage perceived norms, perceived efficacy of alternative discipline strategies, and attitudes to change CP behavior.