Limits of the social-benefit motive among high-risk patients: a field experiment on influenza vaccination behaviour
Abstract
Influenza vaccine uptake remains low worldwide, inflicting substantial costs to public health. Messages promoting social welfare have been shown to increase vaccination intentions, and it has been recommended that health professionals communicate the socially beneficial aspects of vaccination. We provide the first test whether this prosocial vaccination hypothesis applies to actual vaccination behaviour of high-risk patients. In contrast to the literature observing intentions of low-risk populations, we found no evidence that social-benefit motivates actual vaccination behaviour among a high-risk patient population. Instead, those who self-categorize as being in the high risk group are more motivated by the self-benefit message. Our results suggest that a stratified approach can improve coverage: even if an emphasis on social-benefit could be effective among lowrisk groups, an emphasis on self-benefit holds more promise for increasing vaccination in medical organizational settings where high-risk groups are prevalent.
Keywords: Vaccination; Influenza; Nudge; Framing; Health behaviour change; Altruism; Risk perceptions
Cite this article as:
Isler et al. BMC Public Health (2020) 20:240 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-8246-3