While the internet has revolutionized the dissemination of information, misinformation about vaccines has been linked to anti-vaccination viewpoints, contributing to reduced vaccination rates and outbreaks of previously controlled diseases. Many public health initiatives aimed at trying to reduce vaccine hesitancy have had poor results. In an attempt to better understand the discussion surrounding vaccines, researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and La Sierra University looked at the language people used in an open online forum on Facebook discussing vaccines. They found important clues that may help shape more effective pro-vaccination communications.
Researchers analyzed approximately 1,400 comments on the Zuckerberg post using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) text analysis program. The software sorts words into psychologically meaningful categories and then outputs a percentage of words belonging to each category. They found that while the anti-vaccine viewpoint is often seen as highly anxious about the issue, it was the pro-vaccination comments that expressed greater anxiety – especially around family and broader social processes (e.g. herd immunity). In contrast, the anti-vaccination comments were more logically structured, and tended to emphasize topics related to health and biology, as well as talking about research and science.
“This concerns us because the scientific evidence is very clear in demonstrating the safety and benefits of vaccines,” noted Kate Faasse, PhD, Lecturer, Health Psychology, UNSW, Sydney, Australia. “Because these skeptical comments appear on the surface to be quite logical and, because they focus on health, biology, and research, they may be particularly compelling for parents who are uncertain about what decision to make about childhood vaccination and are seeking more information.”
Other studies have shown the persuasive power of anti-vaccination websites and according to this new study, the lower use of anxiety words from the anti-vaccination comments may reflect a lack of understanding about the potential risks of the diseases that vaccinations prevent. “The findings from this research suggest that providing better information about how vaccinations work and how they improve health, as well as increasing public understanding of science and the scientific process, may be particularly important when encouraging vaccination,” added Leslie R. Martin, PhD, Department of Psychology, La Sierra University, Riverside, CA.
While vaccines are safe and effective for most of the population, there are people who cannot be vaccinated for legitimate health reasons, including very young children and the immunocompromised. These populations become vulnerable when large numbers of people opt-out of being vaccinated, because it decreases herd immunity. In 2014, the U.S. experienced a record number of measles cases; in developed countries a large proportion of these infections occur among the intentionally unvaccinated.
“Outbreaks of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases related to vaccine refusal are on the increase,” explained Dr. Faasse. “It’s important to find ways to better understand what people’s concerns are and why they make the decisions they do about vaccination – in particular, the decision not to vaccinate. Research using social media can give us a different perspective on the types of concerns that people have – and can help researchers and public health officials understand what sorts of information might be useful for addressing these concerns for people who are making decisions about vaccination.”
These data, gathered from responses to one high profile Facebook post, suggest that pro- and anti-vaccination viewpoints see the risks of vaccination in very different ways, and often seem to communicate at cross-purposes. Pro-vaccination comments expressed a lot of anxiety about the risks to families, and to society as a whole, of choosing not to vaccinate. In contrast, anti-vaccination comments talked much more about vaccination decisions in terms of biology, health, science, and research. Dr. Faasse concluded that this information is particularly useful because “greater insight about the specific worries people have about vaccination and decisions not to vaccinate can help us provide accurate information to better address these concerns.”
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Notes for editorsThe article is "A comparison of language use in pro- and anti-vaccination comments in response to a high profile Facebook post," by Kate Faasse, PhD; Casey J. Chatman, BA; Leslie R. Martin, PhD (doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.09.029). It appears in Vaccine, volume 34, issue 46 (2016), published by Elsevier.
Copies of this paper are available to credentialed journalists upon request; please contact Elsevier's Newsroom at [email protected] or +31 20 485 2492. Journalists wishing to interview the authors should contact Deborah Smith, UNSW Media Office, at +612 9385 7307, [email protected] or Leslie R. Martin at +1-951-785-2454, [email protected].
About VaccineThe official journal of The Edward Jenner Society and The Japanese Society for Vaccinology, Vaccine is the pre-eminent journal for those interested in vaccines and vaccination. The journal covers a wide range of vaccine-related topics, including human and veterinary vaccines for infectious and non-infectious diseases, production and manufacturing, and regulatory, societal and legislation aspects. www.journals.elsevier.com/vaccine
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