Conspiracism and government distrust predict COVID-19 vaccine refusal

Conspiracism and government distrust predict COVID-19 vaccine refusal

Vaccine hesitancy has been attributed to policy mistakes (e.g., poor communication), individual-level perceptions of risk (i.e., safety concerns about side-effects) and to structural factors, such as the politicization of public health in many countries. Institutional distrust has also been blamed for vaccine refusal, but few studies simultaneously control for possible psychological explanations such as the need for cognition, or general curiosi…