5,292
Views
52
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Other

An Investigation of Low COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among Black Americans: The Role of Behavioral Beliefs and Trust in COVID-19 Information Sources

ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Pages 819-826 | Published online: 13 Mar 2021
 

Abstract

Developing a COVID-19 vaccine is a critical strategy for combatting the pandemic. However, for vaccination efforts to succeed, there must be widespread willingness to vaccinate. Prior research has found that Black Americans, who are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, report lower intentions to get a vaccine than do other populations. We investigate two potential contributors to this disparity: COVID-19 vaccine-related behavioral beliefs and trust in four COVID-19 information sources (mainstream media, social media, President Trump, and public health officials and agencies). Using a nationally-representative survey (n= 889), we demonstrate that differences in vaccination beliefs explain the lower vaccination intentions reported by Black participants, compared to non-Black participants. However, while trust in information sources is associated with vaccination beliefs, differences in trust do not account for the observed differences in vaccination beliefs by race. Furthermore, we find that race moderates the relationships between trust in two sources (Trump and public health officials and agencies) and vaccination beliefs. The effects of trusting these sources on COVID-19 vaccine-related beliefs are smaller among Black participants; thus trust in these sources is less consequential to their pro-vaccination beliefs. Our results suggest that trust in information sources alone does not explain the observed relationship between race and vaccination beliefs.

Declaration of Interests

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The term “Black Americans” is used in this study to refer to all self-identifying Black adults, regardless of U.S. citizenship status. This categorization is inclusive of both Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black people and is used instead of African Americans because not all Black people in the U.S. identify as African American. However, “African Americans” is used in this paper when referencing studies which used that convention.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 215.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.