Facts aren ’t everything – understanding parents’ moral reasons for avoiding vaccination

By Emma Young Last year, so few people contracted measles in England and Wales that the disease was declared technically “eliminated”. The national MMR (measles mumps rubella) vaccination programme is to thank. But set against this welcome news were some imperfect stats: in England in 2016/17, only 87.6 per cent of children had received both the required doses of the vaccine by their fifth birthday – a drop compared with the previous two years. At least part of the reason was a reluctance among some parents to have their children vaccinated. This is a problem that affects other countries, and other vaccines, too. And it’s troubling, because clusters of unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children are more susceptible to disease outbreaks – indeed, a measles outbreak in Leeds and Liverpool just last year affected unprotected children, providing a reminder why all children should be vaccinated. In a new paper, published in Nature Human Behaviour, a team led by Avnika Amin at Emory University, US, reveal a previously overlooked explanation for “vaccine hesitancy”, as it’s called – and it’s to do with parents’ basic moral values. Recent interventions designed to improve childhood vaccination rates have focused on providing parents with facts about vaccines. But while educational campaigns of this kind can be successful in the short term, they can backfire, making some parents even less willing to vaccinate their children than they were before....
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Health Morality Source Type: blogs