Contextualized impacts of an infodemic on vaccine hesitancy: The moderating role of socioeconomic and cultural factors.

ABSTRACT: This study examines how perceived information overload and misinformation affect vaccine hesitancy and how this is moderated by structural and cultural factors. By applying and extending the fundamental cause theory, this study proposes a contextualized impact model to analyze a cross-national survey of 6034 residents in six societies in Asia, Europe and North America in June 2021. The study finds that (1) Older and highly-educated participants were less susceptible to COVID-19 information overload and belief in vaccine misinformation. (2) Perceived information overload led to an increase in vaccine acceptance and uptake, whereas belief in vaccine misinformation caused a decrease. (3) The structural differentiation of vaccine hesitancy was salient and higher socioeconomic status could buff

SUBMITTER: Lin F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9286777 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature