This summary is provided by the Behavioral Insights Research Center
Chelsea Moss and colleagues examined the relationship between family communication patterns (FCP), trust in government, and willingness to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine with family members.
An online survey of 1,036 participants was conducted in March 2022.
Key findings include:
1.) Trust in government did not impact the relationship between conversation orientation (family’s degree of openness for healthy debate within the family) or conformity orientation (family’s expectation of uniformity of beliefs within the family) and vaccine discussion willingness.
2.) Political ideology did not impact family communication patterns, despite the politicized nature of the COVID-19 vaccine.
3.) In families with high conversation orientation, willingness to converse about vaccines was higher in unvaccinated family members than in vaccinated members.
4.) Communicators should take into account that even individuals who are usually very open and conversive with their families may be hesitant to encourage their family members to get vaccinated.
Read the full report here
