The Fear Factor: Examining the Impact of Fear on Vaccine Hesitancy and Anti-vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs

"...work demonstrates the critical role that emotions may play in maintaining conspiracy theory beliefs and feeling connected with others who seek alternatives."

It is important to understand the factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy. One such factor is the belief in vaccine-related conspiracy theories, such as that pharmaceutical companies are hiding information that vaccines are unsafe, vaccines are being used to control the population, or that pharmaceutical companies are aware of the ineffectiveness of vaccines but hide this to make a profit. This research experimentally tested whether the fear of a vaccine may breed conspiracy beliefs about vaccines.

In three experiments (N = 949), the researchers examined the effect of fear about a vaccine on vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs. In Studies 1a (N = 221) and 1b (N = 508), participants were exposed to high fear (vs. low fear) about a (fictional) vaccine before reporting vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs. Specifically, the low fear condition involved the statement: "People should not feel fear towards the [fictional] Flebilis-Potentia vaccine. The vast majority of people will only experience mild side effects. Although the data suggests some people have experienced severe side effects, this has only happened in a small number of cases." In contrast, in the high-fear condition, people read this: "People should feel fear towards the Flebilis-Potentia vaccine. The vast majority of people will only experience mild side effects. However, the data suggests there have been a small number of cases where people have experienced severe side effects."

In Study 2, all participants were exposed to high fear before being asked to think about not getting vaccinated (vs. vaccinated) against the (fictional) disease. Participants then reported their vaccine hesitancy, anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs, and closeness to others who distrust official narratives.

In Studies 1a and 1b, exposure to high fear (vs. low fear) increased vaccine hesitancy, which was positively correlated with anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs. The reverse model's effect was either smaller (Study 1a) or non-significant (Study 1b). In Study 2, fear and not wanting to vaccinate resulted in vaccine hesitancy, which then predicted anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and feeling closer to those distrusting official narratives.

Together, the studies provide empirical evidence that fear could drive vaccine hesitancy and, in turn, increase the appeal of a conspiracy theory to justify one's emotional gut response.

While health communication messages addressing emotions have been efficacious in promoting certain health behaviours, this effect has not been explored for vaccination intentions when controlling for conspiracy beliefs. Future research should, therefore, seek to clarify the relationship between wider emotion regulation strategies to target fear and other negative emotions arising as a result of conspiracy theories before applying the findings to vaccine hesitancy. Such research, in turn, may inform future interventions and public health communication tactics.

Therefore, this work "showcases the importance of continuing to develop interventions that can target emotions, as seemingly being able to deal with fear may reduce the tendency to justify not wanting to vaccinate and, thus, safeguard against conspiracy beliefs emerging. It may also safeguard against feeling close to communities who distrust official narratives, as participants in our work might have been drawn to such communities to justify their fear gut response to the vaccine."

In conclusion: "Efforts focusing on improving vaccine uptake could be wise to focus on the emotional drivers of vaccine hesitancy. If people can emotionally regulate and respond better to fear, the fostering of vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs could be alleviated."