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A social norms approach intervention to address misperceptions of anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs amongst UK parents

Cookson, Darel; Jolley, Daniel; Dempsey, Robert C.; Povey, Rachel

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Authors

Darel Cookson

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Dr DANIEL JOLLEY Daniel.Jolley@nottingham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor in Social Psychology

Robert C. Dempsey

Rachel Povey



Contributors

Anat Gesser-Edelsburg
Editor

Abstract

Anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs among parents can reduce vaccination intentions. Parents’ beliefs in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories are also related to their perceptions of other parents’ conspiracy beliefs. Further, research has shown that parents hold misperceptions of anti-vaccine conspiracy belief norms: UK parents over-estimate the anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs of other parents. The present study tested the effectiveness of a Social Norms Approach intervention, which corrects misperceptions using normative feedback, to reduce UK parents’ anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and increase vaccination intentions. At baseline, 202 UK parents of young children reported their personal belief in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, future intentions to vaccinate, and their perceptions of other UK parents’ beliefs and intentions. Participants were then randomly assigned to a normative feedback condition (n = 89) or an assessment-only control condition (n = 113). The normative feedback compared participants’ personal anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and perceptions of other UK parents’ beliefs with actual normative belief levels. Parents receiving the normative feedback showed significantly reduced personal belief in anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs at immediate post-test. As hypothesised, changes in normative perceptions of anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs mediated the effect of the intervention. The intervention, did not directly increase vaccination intentions, however mediation analysis showed that the normative feedback increased perceptions of other parents’ vaccination intentions, which in turn increased personal vaccination intentions. No significant effects remained after a six-week follow-up. The current research demonstrates the potential utility of Social Norms Approach interventions for correcting misperceptions and reducing anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs among UK parents. Further research could explore utilising a top-up intervention to maintain the efficacy.

Citation

Cookson, D., Jolley, D., Dempsey, R. C., & Povey, R. (2021). A social norms approach intervention to address misperceptions of anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs amongst UK parents. PLoS ONE, 16(11), Article e0258985. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258985

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 10, 2021
Online Publication Date Nov 12, 2021
Publication Date Nov 12, 2021
Deposit Date Mar 10, 2022
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal PLoS ONE
Electronic ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 16
Issue 11
Article Number e0258985
DOI https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258985
Keywords Multidisciplinary
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7505322
Publisher URL https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258985

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