Framing Vaccination as a Collective Responsibility Increases Intentions to Vaccinate

The decision to vaccinate may be motivated by self-protection or community protection, and people may perceive vaccination as mostly a personal responsibility or a collective obligation. We conducted two preregistered survey experiments using a 2-by-2 design with the factors benefit (personal vs. collective) and responsibility (personal vs. collective). The experiments were conducted on large, overlapping representative samples of Norwegian adults: one before (N = 5,474) and one after (N = 1,789) COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Norway. In both experiment the data showed that framing vaccination choice as a collective responsibility (vs. personal responsibility) increased vaccine intentions. Emphasizing personal benefit (vs. collective benefit) increased vaccine intentions in the second experiment, but this effect was not observed in the first experiment. There was no interaction between the factors in either experiment. These findings indicate that highlighting collective responsibility may boost vaccine uptake, but the influence of emphasizing personal versus collective benefits remains inconclusive.