PreprintArticleVersion 1Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
The Carrot or the Stick?: Effects of Reinforcement and Trust in Government on Parental Decision on Vaccination for Teens during an Infectious Disease Crisis
Version 1
: Received: 31 December 2023 / Approved: 2 January 2024 / Online: 2 January 2024 (09:37:18 CET)
How to cite:
Kim, S.; Park, G. E. The Carrot or the Stick?: Effects of Reinforcement and Trust in Government on Parental Decision on Vaccination for Teens during an Infectious Disease Crisis. Preprints2024, 2024010059. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202401.0059.v1
Kim, S.; Park, G. E. The Carrot or the Stick?: Effects of Reinforcement and Trust in Government on Parental Decision on Vaccination for Teens during an Infectious Disease Crisis. Preprints 2024, 2024010059. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202401.0059.v1
Kim, S.; Park, G. E. The Carrot or the Stick?: Effects of Reinforcement and Trust in Government on Parental Decision on Vaccination for Teens during an Infectious Disease Crisis. Preprints2024, 2024010059. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202401.0059.v1
APA Style
Kim, S., & Park, G. E. (2024). The Carrot or the Stick?: Effects of Reinforcement and Trust in Government on Parental Decision on Vaccination for Teens during an Infectious Disease Crisis. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202401.0059.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Kim, S. and Grace EunHae Park. 2024 "The Carrot or the Stick?: Effects of Reinforcement and Trust in Government on Parental Decision on Vaccination for Teens during an Infectious Disease Crisis" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202401.0059.v1
Abstract
This study investigated how positive (e.g., incentives) and negative (e.g., restrictions) reinforcement used in vaccination promotional messages and trust in government impact parental vaccine perceptions and decisions on vaccinating their children during a large-scale infectious disease crisis. Two hundred and eighty-six parents of unvaccinated teens participated in a 2 (reinforcement: positive vs. negative) × 2 (trust in government: high vs. low) between-subjects experimental survey. Positive reinforcement (e.g., gift cards for the vaccinated) was more effective for parents with low trust in the government to improve their attitudes and intentions toward child vaccination, while parents with high trust in the government were unaffected by reinforcement types. To the best of our knowledge, this study is among the first to examine the effects of both positive and negative reinforcement on vaccination perceptions and behavioral intentions through a controlled experiment and is the first study to do so in a large-scale infectious disease crisis setting. This research is expected to help public health professionals better prepare for and manage virus-induced public health crises in the future.
Keywords
reinforcement; vaccination; incentives; child vaccination; trust in government
Subject
Social Sciences, Media studies
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.