How to convince vaccine skeptics — and how not to

Many people who are skeptical about vaccinating their children can be convinced to do so, but only if the argument is presented in a certain way, a team of psychologists from UCLA and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign reported today. The research appears in the online early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The finding is especially important because the number of measles cases in the U.S. tripled from 2013 to 2014. The disease’s re-emergence has been linked to a trend of parents refusing to vaccinate their children. What doesn’t change their minds? Telling parents their fear of vaccinations is uninformed and erroneous. What does? Reminding parents that measles is a terrible disease and that they can protect their children by vaccinating them. In the new study, 315 adults from throughout the U.S. were randomly divided into three groups. At the start of the study, about one-third of the participants held very favorable attitudes toward vaccines, while about two-thirds expressed some degree of skepticism. The skeptics included approximately 10 percent of participants who held very negative attitudes toward vaccines. People with positive and negative attitudes toward vaccines were equally represented in each of the three groups. One group read material from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying that all children should be vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella, and explaining that the vaccine for those ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news