To Be (Vaccinated) or Not to Be: The Effect of Media Exposure, Institutional Trust, and Incentives on Attitudes toward COVID-19 Vaccination

Dorit Zimand-Sheiner, Ofrit Kol, Smadar Frydman and Shalom Levy
Additional contact information
Dorit Zimand-Sheiner: School of Communication, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel
Ofrit Kol: School of Communication, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel
Smadar Frydman: Doctoral School, Jaume I University, 12071 Castelló de la Plana, Spain
Shalom Levy: Department of Economics and Business Administration, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 24, 1-14

Abstract: The COVID-19 vaccine has become a strategic vehicle for reducing the spread of the pandemic. However, the uptake of the vaccine by the public is more complicated than simply making it available. Based on social learning theory, this study examines the role of communication sources and institutional trust as barriers and incentives as motivators of people’s attitudes toward vaccination and actual vaccination. Data were collected via an online panel survey among Israelis aged 18–55 and then analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings show that social media trust negatively mediates the effect of exposure to information on the vaccine on attitudes toward vaccination. However, mass media trust and institutional trust positively mediate this relationship. Incentives were effective motivators for forming positive attitudes and moderating the effect of institutional trust on attitude toward vaccination. This study facilitates a deeper understanding of health communication theory in pandemics and makes important recommendations for practitioners and policy makers.

Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; vaccination; media trust; institutional trust; incentives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/12894/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/12894/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:12894-:d:696804

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().