More people willing to get vaccinated when they know others plan to get one, international survey says

AUSTIN (KXAN)– One of the largest international surveys ever conducted shows people are more willing to get the COVID-19 vaccine when told how many others in the community plan to get one, UT-Austin said in a news release Tuesday.

“Our study shows that accurate information about what most other people are doing can substantially increase intentions to accept a COVID-19 vaccine,” said Avinash Collis, co-author and assistant professor of information, risk and operations management in the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas. “But once people know that the majority has already received or are going to get the vaccine, they feel safer to get the vaccine.”

The global survey was conducted as a joint effort with UT Austin, MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, the World Health Organization, Johns Hopkins University and Meta, the release said.

Collis said Facebook provided the survey sample and placed survey ads in the users’ newsfeeds. Since then, more than two million responses in 67 countries made it one of the largest academic social science surveys ever conducted, the release said.

The survey found that public health campaigns were more convincing when they focused on the percentage of people receiving vaccinations, as opposed to the dangers of refusing vaccination, the release said.

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