How does vaccine polarisation influence participation in research studies?

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to divided opinions on preventive measures such as vaccinations. While conflicting interests and diversity of opinion are signs of a functioning democracy, a complete divergence of opinions among the population can massively hinder the ability to compromise and find democratic solutions. During the pandemic, this divide didn’t stay at the policy level; it also evolved into the emotional level, which is technically referred to as affective polarisation.

Affective polarisation can be defined as the tendency for people to feel warm, positive, and trusting toward others who share their views, while feeling increasingly cold, negative, or hostile toward those who disagree. Although often discussed in political contexts, affective polarisation can also emerge around major public issues, such as COVID-19 vaccination. In this setting, people may develop strong positive feelings toward those who share their stance on vaccination and growing distrust or animosity toward those on the opposing side. 

Aziz Mert İpekçi is a doctoral student at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine and has investigated in his research how people's feelings and concerns about COVID vaccination is associated with willingness to participate in a study on pandemic preparedness.

Adobe Stock

What did you find out about affective polarisation? 

Our cross-sectional survey in the canton of Bern showed that more than half of participants were affectively polarised around the topic of COVID-19 vaccination. Among vaccination supporters, those who were affectively polarised were more likely to participate in a long-term cohort study compared to non-polarised supporters, whereas among vaccination opposers, those who were affectively polarised were less likely to participate than opposers who were not polarised. With this study we concluded that, following the COVID-19 pandemic, better understanding and addressing affective polarisation is needed to improve participation in pandemic preparedness research. 

 

Why is knowledge/data about polarisation useful? 

Knowledge about affective polarisation is useful because we can observe a clear correlation between levels of polarisation and behaviour related to participation in health research. Similar patterns are also visible in other health behaviours, such as vaccination uptake, which are associated with affective polarisation. However, more research is needed to establish stronger evidence for this correlation. Therefore, we argue that measuring affective polarisation is important for preparing for future pandemics, as it will help us better understand people’s health behaviour and develop more effective health policies.