Views on vaccines range from those who are strongly supportive to those who are stridently opposed; where at these ends of the poles, people are reluctant to budge from identity-based core beliefs about vaccines. In between these poles are numerous others who can delay, be reluctant (but still accept), or refuse/accept some vaccines for their children but not others. It is with these vaccine-hesitant parents that the most immediate and productive gains can be made towards enhancing vaccination acceptance and possibly improving uptake. Yet there is little consensus on how best to use communication to respond to vaccine hesitancy.
Broadly speaking, the source matters when evaluating the credibility of information claims. Likewise, the actual content of what is communicated is equally important. Psychological research has demonstrated that stories/narratives motivate behavior change more than statistics/facts. However, there is a lack of literature examining whether stories require certain features for the content to resonate more in shaping the decisions made about a health recommendation.
In this before and after study, we aim to test two sources – a healthcare provider and a parent – and two types of story narratives – affective/intuitive vs rational/deliberative – on parental decision making about immunizing their child with the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine. The sample population will be comprised of parents having at least one child aged 2 or younger in Canada. Following recruitment into the study, through either Facebook advertisements or via a consumer panel, a parent’s level of ‘vaccine hesitancy’ will be measured using the Parent Attitudes about Childhood Vaccines (PACV) tool. Parents with a score of 25 or more will be invited into the next phase of the study which involves exposure to a mock news story, varied by source and content. We will again assess their attitudes to vaccines as well as introduce a survey scale to measure their preferences for decision-making.
This presentation will focus on a preliminary analysis of our data based on focus group interviews with parents in both English and French, as well as a pilot testing of our survey instruments before full study roll-out.