Abstract
•Those who are hesitant about being vaccinated against COVID-19 had weaker independent self-construals and reported more overlap between their sense of self and their community than those who intend to receive the vaccine.•This hesitant group also scored lower across all social and behavioral factors including descriptive and injunctive social norms and engagement in other protective actions than those who intend to receive the vaccine.•Those in the hesitant group did not see less personal or collective risk from COVID-19 but they did see the vaccine as riskier and less effective than those who intend to receive the vaccine.
The global SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic presents a pressing health challenge for all countries, including Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). As of early 2022, NZ public health measures have reduced impacts of the pandemic, but ongoing efforts to limit illness and fatalities will be significantly aided by widescale uptake of available vaccines including COVID-19 booster doses. Decades of research have established a broad range of demographic, social, cognitive, and behavioural factors which influence peoples’ uptake of vaccinations, including a large amount of research in the last two years focused on COVID-19 vaccination in particular. In this study, we surveyed people in New Zealand (N = 660) in May and June of 2021, at which point the vaccine had been made available to high-risk groups. We explored individual versus collective motivations, finding that people who were hesitant about COVID-19 vaccination scored lower on independent self-construals (how people define themselves) but higher on community identity, weaker but still positive perceived social norms, lower general risk of COVID-19 to New Zealanders and higher vaccine risk for both themselves and others, and lower response-efficacy both for personal and collective benefits. Overall, the findings suggest some benefit of collective over individual appeals, but that generally messaging to encourage vaccination should focus on conveying social norms, risk from COVID-19 broadly, and vaccine safety and efficacy.