The social characteristics of Americans opposed to vaccination: beliefs about vaccine safety versus views of U.S. vaccination policy

Abstract

This study examines the social characteristics – specifically, socio-economic status, political identity, and ethnic-racial identity – related to opposition to vaccination in the United States. Previous research on this subject has produced conflicting results. The potential reason for this is that the influence of social environment varies depending on which aspect of opposition to vaccination is examined. I found support for this hypothesis by analyzing two surveys from the Pew Research Center, one that asked about vaccine safety and the other that asked about U.S. vaccination policy. Running logistic regression models on both surveys, I found that the social characteristics of those who believe vaccines are unsafe were not the same as the social characteristics of those who believed that vaccination should not be compulsory. This suggests that the social forces that shape personal beliefs about vaccines are not the same as the social forces that shape views of U.S. vaccination policy.

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