Of sticks and carrots - Effects of coercive and rewarding measures for increasing vaccination uptake

Der Ausbruch ansteckender Krankheiten kann durch flächendeckende Impfung verhindert werden. Die Impfquoten fallen jedoch regelmäßig zu gering aus. Die vorliegende Dissertation beschäftigt sich deshalb mit zwei Ansätzen, um Menschen zu einer Impfung zu motivieren, (1) der Sanktionierung der Nichtimpfung im Rahmen einer Impfpflicht und (2) der Belohnung der Impfung durch Gewährung bestimmter Vorteile gegenüber Ungeimpften. In insgesamt sieben Artikeln werden mögliche Effekte der beiden Ansätze anhand empirischer Studien untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Einführung einer Impfpflicht zu psychologischer Reaktanz in der Bevölkerung führen kann, auch wenn die Regelung nur bestimmte Berufsgruppen betrifft. Erklärung und Begründung der Impfpflicht können Reaktanz zwar abfedern, vielfältige nachteilige Effekte auf das individuelle Gesundheitsverhalten sind jedoch wahrscheinlich. In Bezug auf Belohnungen lassen sich nur eingeschränkt positive Effekte finden. Während die Gewährung von Freiheiten nicht zu einer Erhöhung der Impfbereitschaft führt, können hohe Geldzahlungen die Impfquoten wahrscheinlich leicht steigern. Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt, dass eine Impfpflicht oder Belohnungen wegen ihrer negativen oder eingeschränkten Effekte nicht als alleinige Maßnahme zur Steigerung der Impfquoten eingesetzt werden sollten, durchaus aber in einem Interventionsmix berücksichtigt werden können. Die Arbeit trägt zum Aufbau wissenschaftlicher Evidenz bei, die zur Auswahl und erfolgreichen Umsetzung wirkungsvoller Maßnahmen zur Förderung von Impfungen beitragen kann

Situational pathogen avoidance mediates the impact of social connectedness on preventive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, physical distancing was one of the more important behaviours for reducing the spread of the virus. The present study investigated the influence on pathogen avoidance of familiarity with other people at private gatherings. Based on the social identity model of risk taking and the theory of the behavioural immune system, we assumed that greater familiarity with others would make people feel more connected with one another and decrease situational pathogen avoidance. This could result in lower perceptions of the risk of contracting COVID-19 and fewer protective behaviours. Two experiments (n1 = 1022, n2 = 994) showed that the negative influence of greater familiarity on the perceived risk of infection and protective behaviour is explained by an increased feeling of connectedness and less feeling of situational pathogen avoidance. In an additional survey, the participants (n = 23,023) rated the quality of their past social contacts. The correlational analyses showed that the familiarity of the other person was more important in explaining variance in protective behaviours than attitudes toward those behaviours or the pandemic situation itself. Understanding the process that result in an explosive increase in infection after social gatherings can improve infection control in the future.Peer Reviewe

Welcome to Jupyter: Improving Collaboration and Reproduction in Psychological Research by Using a Notebook System

The reproduction of findings from psychological research has been proven difficult. Ab-stract description of the data analysis steps performed by researchers is one of the main reasons why reproducing or even understanding published findings is so difficult. With the introduction of Jupyter, a new tool for the organization of both static and dynamic information became available. The software allows blending explanatory content like written text or images with code for preprocessing and analyzing scientific data. Thus, Jupyter helps documenting the whole research process from ideation over data analysis to the interpretation of results. This fosters both collaboration and scientific quality by helping researchers to organize their work. This tutorial is an introduction to Jupyter. It explains how to setup and use the notebook system. While introducing its key features, the advantages of using Jupyter notebooks for psychological research become obvious

Comment on: “Willingness to Pay for a COVID-19 Vaccine”

Comment on the article 'Willingness to pay for a COVID-19 vaccine' by Cerda & Garcia (2021), published in Applied Health Economics and Health Policy

Ok Google: Using virtual assistants for data collection in psychological and behavioral research

Online supplemen

Understanding Drivers of Vaccine Hesitancy among Pregnant Women in Nigeria

A longitudinal stud

Payments and freedoms: Effects of monetary and legal incentives on COVID-19 vaccination intentions in Germany.

Monetary and legal incentives have been proposed to promote COVID-19 vaccination uptake. To evaluate the suitability of incentives, an experiment with German participants examined the effects of payments (varied within subjects: 0 to 10,000 EUR) and freedoms (varied between subjects: vaccination leading vs. not leading to the same benefits as a negative test result) on the vaccination intentions of previously unvaccinated individuals (n = 782) in April 2021. While no effect could be found for freedoms, the share of participants willing to be vaccinated increased with the payment amount. However, a significant change required large rewards of 3,250 EUR or more. While monetary incentives could increase vaccination uptake by a few percentage points, the high costs of implementation challenge the efficiency of the measure and call for alternatives. As the data suggest that considering vaccination as safe, necessary, and prosocial increases an individual's likelihood of wanting to get vaccinated without payment, interventions should focus on these features when promoting vaccination against COVID-19