Surname Order and Revaccination Intentions: The Effect of Mixed- Gender Lists on Gender Differences during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract Background In Japanese primary schools, students are listed according to their surname's alphabet-ical order. Teachers unconsciously rely on the alphabetical list to call on students during class and at non-academic events. Students with surnames appearing early in these lists tend to be called upon sooner in various school situations, enabling them to learn from new experiences earlier. Early listed surnames enhance cognitive and non-cognitive skill development. Through this channel, early surnames are thought to have a long-term effect on adulthood behaviours such as being vaccinated. The adoption of mixed-gender lists since the 1980s has amplified this effect, particularly for females. Methods We conducted internet surveys nearly every month between March 2020 and September 2022 with the same subjects. During this period, COVID-19 vaccines were developed and became available. Many studies have explored how unvaccinated people are motivated to get inoculated against COVID-19. As of March 2023 in Japan, most people have received their first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccine. It has now become crucial for vaccinated people to get revaccinated as the vaccines lose effectiveness over time. Our study focuses on revaccinations, using a sub-sample of individuals who have received their first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. In the survey, we asked subjects in which alphabetical column their childhood and adulthood surnames were located. This enables us to identify how surname order plays a critical role in forming non-cognitive skills. Japanese people could receive their third dose starting from December 2021. The 19th wave of our survey was conducted the following month, in January 2022. Therefore, to examine how surname’s alphabetical order influenced the intention to revaccinate, we used a sub-sample covering the period from December 2021 to September 2022. Ordinary Least Square regression method was used. Results Females with early surnames had approximately 4% stronger intentions than males with early surnames. Female’s early name order is more strongly correlated with revaccination intention than males. The surname effect for females was about three times larger if mixed gender list was used than if mixed gender list was not used. The effect was only observed for childhood surname but not for adulthood one. Discussion This study is the first to identify how surname order plays a critical role in forming non-cognitive skills in school life to promote revaccination in their adulthood. We show the long-term effect of adopting a mixed-gender list in schools when unexpected events such as the COVID-19 pandemic occur.