Study: Unvaxxed don’t hate the vaxxed, but the vaxxed do

The study featured in this article was initially designed to see if there is mutual antipathy among the COVID-19 vaccinated and the unvaccinated. Prejudice Against the Vaccinated and the Unvaccinated During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global Conjoint Experiment is available at https://psyarxiv.com/t2g45/.

Their findings may not surprise some as many have felt them.

Method

The authors from the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University in
Denmark sent questionnaires to people from 21 countries. The study collected data from December 3, 2021, and January 28, 2022.

The research used the technique from a paper by Bogardus [2] on how to measure personal-group relations,

We presented the participants with a brief description of a series of fictitious individuals and asked them to imagine that these are people whom one of their close relatives intends to marry.

One of the six attributes describing these target individuals has been their vaccination status, randomly varying between “fully vaccinated” and “unvaccinated”.

For comparison, another attribute has been labeled “family background” and distinguished between people “born and raised in [the respondent’s country]” and people “immigrated from the Middle East.” Discrimination against Middle Eastern immigrants has been widely documented and serves as an excellent benchmark.

Questionnaire

The yes and no answers to the following questions gave the researchers an insight into the following.

“I would be unhappy if this person married one of my close relatives” – Antipathy
“I would be afraid that this person infected me or my family with COVID-19” – Fear of infection.
“I think this person is unintelligent” – Perceptions of intelligence
“I think this person is untrustworthy” – Trustworthiness

Results:

Based on 10,740 vaccinated and unvaccinated respondents from 21 countries representing 58% of the global population,

Using conjoint experimental data, we demonstrate that vaccinated people have high antipathy towards the unvaccinated, 2.5 times more than towards a traditional target: immigrants from the Middle East.

This antipathy reflects, in part, stereotypic inferences that unvaccinated individuals are untrustworthy and unintelligent, making the antipathy resemble prejudice towards other deviant groups like substance abusers, promiscous females, atheists and the mentally ill.

The figure below shows the level of antipathy towards vaxxed and unvaxxed. Black dots denote county-level estimates, and red is the average and includes the antipathy towards Middle Eastern immigrants.

Antipathy towards the unvaccinated is larger in countries that suffered fewer COVID-19 deaths and that have higher social trust.

In contrast, we find no evidence that unvaccinated respondents display antipathy towards vaccinated people, although they are equally prejudiced against immigrants.

Can you relate to the results? I sure can.

We are all in this together. Like the neutralizing antibody titers, I hope that any animosity will wane with time.

Truth heals. Lies kill. Don’t Get Sick!

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Related:

Reference:

Bor, A., Jørgensen, F. J., & Petersen, M. (2022, February 18). Prejudice Against the Vaccinated and the Unvaccinated During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Global Conjoint Experiment. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/t2g45
Emory S. Bogardus. Measurement of Personal-Group RelationsAuthor(s): Source:
Sociometry, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Nov. 1947), pp. 306-311Published by American Sociological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2785570

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