COVID-19 Vaccine Skepticism in France: Roles of Thinking Disposition, Epistemic Suspect Beliefs, and Knowledge on attitudes toward vaccination

Shortly after the outbreak of COVID-19 which led to the largest pandemic in decades, part of the population still refuses to be vaccinated. In the current research, we investigated whether a number of sociocognitive factors predict vaccine skepticism in the context of COVID-19 in a French population. We conducted three preregistered studies examining whether thinking dispositions, knowledge, and beliefs predict vaccine attitudes. Study 1 (N = 164) showed that COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, political orientation and vaccine knowledge are independent predictors of vaccine attitudes. Study 2 (N = 198) showed that vaccine conspiracy belief and belief in science predict vaccine attitudes. In Study 3 (N = 123), manipulation of reasoning mode had no significant effect on attitude toward vaccines. Results showed that thinking disposition predicted attitudes toward vaccination, but did not systematically survive the inclusion of scales targeting conspiracy beliefs or belief in science. We discuss the implications of this constellation of variables and the need to focus on and act upon beliefs in particular.