Political network composition predicts vaccination attitudes
Political polarization is growing rapidly in the United States and has been linked to politicized public health issues including vaccination. Political homogeneity among one's interpersonal relationships may predict polarization levels and partisan bias. In this study, we analyzed if political...
Saved in:
| Published in: | Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 328; p. 116004 |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
England
Elsevier Ltd
01-07-2023
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Political polarization is growing rapidly in the United States and has been linked to politicized public health issues including vaccination. Political homogeneity among one's interpersonal relationships may predict polarization levels and partisan bias. In this study, we analyzed if political network structure predicted partisan beliefs about the COVID-19 vaccine, beliefs about vaccines in general, and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Personal networks were measured by whom the respondent discussed “important matters” with to obtain a list of individuals who are close to the respondent. The number of associates listed who share the political identity or vaccine status with the respondent was calculated as a measure of homogeneity. We find that having more Republicans and unvaccinated individuals in one's network predicted lower vaccine confidence whereas having more Democrats and vaccinated individuals in one's network predicted higher vaccine confidence. Exploratory network analyses revealed that non-kin others are especially impactful on vaccine attitudes when those network connections are also Republican and unvaccinated.
•Having more Republicans in one's network predicted lower vaccine confidence.•Having more Democrats in one's network predicted higher vaccine confidence.•Having more unvaccinated network connections predicted lower vaccine confidence.•Non-kin others in one's network were especially predictive of vaccine confidence. |
|---|---|
| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 0277-9536 1873-5347 1873-5347 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116004 |