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piqer for: Global finds Technology and society Health and Sanity
Nechama Brodie is a South African journalist and researcher. She is the author of six books, including two critically acclaimed urban histories of Johannesburg and Cape Town. She works as the head of training and research at TRI Facts, part of independent fact-checking organisation Africa Check, and is completing a PhD in data methodology and media studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.
A Venn Diagram Of Anti-Vaccination Values: Why Messaging On Fairness Fails To Convince Anti-Vaxxers
For years health officials and researchers have been confounded by the persistence and growth of the global anti-vaxx lobby, which insists vaccines are either ineffective or actively harmful (ignoring generations of evidence as to vaccines' efficacy and safety). The make up of anti-vaxx group adds to the mystery: typically, they are educated, middle-class, well-off parents.
As potentially fatal diseases such as measles begin to make a global resurgence, health researchers and behavioral psychologists have made diverse attempts to understand and to shift perceptions against vaccines. So far, none of these appear to have resulted in widespread positive behaviour change — if anything, fact-based information can have the opposite effect. A 2014 American study showed that subjects who were initially opposed to vaccines came out more strongly against vaccines after being given information on vaccine safety.
A new study, published in the journal Nature, might have uncovered 'what gives?'. The study, which looks at 'moral values' of the vaccine-hesistant, found that people who were opposed to vaccines tended to prize values of 'liberty' and 'purity', while pro-vaccination campaigns tended to emphasise values of fairness and harm [reduction]. This isn't just semantics: the descriptions give an indication of the individual and social context in which opposition to vaccines occurs. Much like Trump is rumoured to do the opposite of what he is told — simply because he hates being told what to do — anti-vaxxers show similar behaviours. This messaging is also deliberately exploited by lobby groups, who cleverly choose and use words designed to appeal to the self-selected morals of such groups, using words like 'contaminants'.
This article suggests if the health and scientific community was able to shift its messaging to better appeal to what matters to anti-vaxxers, it might be able to finally make some inroads into these selfish and slightly petulant group behaviours.
