Moral obligation, autonomous motivation and vaccine hesitancy: Highlighting moral obligation increases reactance in hesitant individuals

Author:

Pavey Louisa1ORCID,Rotella Amanda2ORCID,Vallée‐Tourangeau Gaelle3ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Psychology Kingston University Kingston‐upon‐Thames UK

2. Department of Psychology Northumbria University Newcastle upon Tyne UK

3. Kingston Business School Kingston University Kingston Upon Thames UK

Abstract

AbstractVaccine hesitancy is widespread, and developing effective communication strategies that encourage hesitant individuals to choose vaccination is essential. This pre‐registered research aimed to examine associations among moral obligation, autonomous motivation, vaccination intentions and reactance, and to test messages highlighting moral obligation and autonomy support. In Study 1, participants who had not received a Covid‐19 vaccine (N = 1036) completed measures of autonomous motivation, moral obligation, reactance, intentions to vaccinate and vaccine hesitancy. Autonomous motivation and moral obligation emerged as strong independent predictors of lower reactance, lower hesitancy and greater vaccination intentions. In Study 2 (N = 429), the participants received a vaccination‐promoting message that highlighted moral obligation versus personal protection and used autonomy supportive versus controlling language. Messages with autonomy‐supportive language and highlighting personal protection elicited lower reactance and greater perceived legitimacy compared to messages with controlling language and highlighting moral obligation. All messages elicited greater reactance and lower perceived legitimacy compared to an information‐only message, and there were no effects of message type on vaccination intentions or vaccine hesitancy. The research has implications for the design of communications encouraging vaccination in hesitant individuals and suggests caution should be taken when developing messages to encourage vaccination in hesitant individuals.

Funder

Kingston University

Publisher

Wiley

Reference44 articles.

1. The Theory of Planned Behavior

2. The "What" and "Why" of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self-Determination of Behavior

3. Reactance and perceived disease severity as determinants of COVID‐19 vaccination intention: An application of the theory of planned behavior;Drążkowski D.;Psychology, Health & Medicine,2021

4. The Psychology of Morality: A Review and Analysis of Empirical Studies Published From 1940 Through 2017

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3