The European Journal of Public Health
Volume 24 Issue 2 April 2014
http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/content/current
Kicking against the pricks: vaccine sceptics have a different social orientation
Jeroen Luyten1,2, Pieter Desmet3, Veronica Dorgali4,5, Niel Hens1,6 and Philippe Beutels1,7
1 Centre for Health Economics Research and Modelling Infectious Diseases, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, University of Antwerp, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium
2 Institute of Philosophy, Catholic University of Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
3 Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, 3062 PA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
4 Department of Statistics, Informatics, Applications (DISIA), University of Florence, 50134 Firenze, Italy
5 Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, 56124 Pisa, Italy
6 Center for Statistics, Hasselt University, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
7 School of Public Health and Community Medicine, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Correspondence: Jeroen Luyten, Faculty of Medicine, Centre for Health Economics Research and Modeling Infectious Diseases, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk, Belgium. Tel: +32 3 265 21 51, Fax: +32 3 265 28 77, e-mail: Jeroen.luyten@ua.ac.be
http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/2/310.abstract
Abstract
Background: In any country, part of the population is sceptical about the utility of vaccination. To develop successful vaccination programmes, it is important to study and understand the defining characteristics of vaccine sceptics. Research till now mainly focused either on the underlying motives of vaccine refusal, or on socio-demographic differences between vaccine sceptics and non-sceptics. It remained till now unexplored whether both groups differ in terms of basic psychological dispositions. Methods: We held a population survey in a representative sample of the population in Flanders, Belgium (N = 1050), in which we investigated whether respondents’ attitude to vaccination was associated with their basic disposition toward other community members or society in general, as measured by the Triandis and Gelfand social orientation scale. Results: We found that sceptics and non-sceptics have a different social orientation, even when several variables are controlled for. More specifically, vaccine sceptics scored significantly lower on both horizontal individualism and horizontal collectivism, indicating a lower disposition to see others as equals. Conclusion: These findings need confirmation in the context of different countries. Such insights can be valuable to optimize the design of effective communication strategies on vaccination programmes.