Alike but not the same: psychological profiles of COVID-19 vaccine skeptics

  • One of the challenges of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was a widespread skepticism about vaccination. To elucidate the underlying mental and emotional predispositions, we examined a sample of 1428 participants using latent profile analysis (LPA) on selected personality trait variables, mental health status, and measures of irrational beliefs. LPA revealed five distinct profiles: two classes of non-skeptics and three of skeptics. The smaller non-skeptic class reported the highest rates of mental health problems, along with high levels of neuroticism, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, and external locus of control. The larger non-skeptic class was psychologically well-balanced. Conversely, the skeptic groups shared strong distrust of COVID-19 vaccination but differed in emotional and mental profiles, leading to graded differences in endorsing extreme conspiracy beliefs. This suggests that vaccine skepticism is not solely a result of mental illness or emotional instability; rather extreme skepticism manifests as a nuanced, graded phenomenon contingent on personality traits and conspirational beliefs.
Metadaten
Author:Ursula VossORCiDGND, Karin Schermelleh-EngelORCiDGND, Leana Hauser, Mira Holzmann, Diana Fichtner, Sonja Seifert, Ansgar KlimkeORCiDGND, Sabine WindmannORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-864480
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/20551029241248757
ISSN:2055-1029
Parent Title (English):Health psychology open
Publisher:Sage Publishing
Place of publication:Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2024/04/25
Date of first Publication:2024/04/25
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2024/10/29
Tag:COVID-19; conspiracy; latent profile analysis; pandemic; psychological profiles; scale construction; vaccine skepticism
Volume:11
Page Number:12
First Page:1
Last Page:12
Institutes:Psychologie und Sportwissenschaften / Psychologie
Dewey Decimal Classification:1 Philosophie und Psychologie / 15 Psychologie / 150 Psychologie
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International