Submitted by Prof. Sander L.... on Fri, 28/04/2017 - 10:20
This week's key cover story in Science Magazine is on vaccine hesitancy and the "Science of Persuasion". In reviewing several recent promising studies on how to correct influential misperceptions about vaccine risks, Dr. van der Linden and colleagues' work in BMC Public Health is cited on how highlighting normative agreement among doctors about vaccine safety can reduce worry about (childhood) vaccines and increase intentions to vaccinate. Notably, revealing accurate normative information about what referent others (such as domain experts) think about a topic, does not involve explicit persuasion.
The research was also featured in a recent "Best Practice" report from the World Health Organization (WHO) on how to respond to public vaccine hesitancy and denial.
References
van der Linden, S., Clarke, C., & Maibach, E. (2015). Highlighting consensus among medical scientists increases public support for vaccines: Evidence from a randomized experiment. BMC Public Health, 15(1), 1207.