Purity-related Cues Improve Republicans’ Vaccination Attitude and Intention

Previous literature has indicated that the moral foundation of purity/sanctity correlates strongly with vaccination rates. With two pre-registered studies conducted with Republican and Republican-leaning Independents, the current research investigates how purity concern impacts COVID-19 hesitancy. Study 1 (N = 566) found that the relationship between vaccination history and purity moral foundation is mediated by the perception that vaccines are impure, and such perception is dependent on the belief that the human body is sacred. Study 2 (N = 637) found that among those with no COVID-19 vaccination history, statements arguing that vaccines are not impure from either a scientific perspective or a religious perspective prompted them to believe that getting vaccinated is a better idea and increased their perceived likelihood to get at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine during the next six months. However, the impurity perception only mediates the causal relationship between the treatment and the attitude toward vaccines (but not the actual intention), suggesting that changes in the actual vaccination behavior are subject to factors other than purity concerns.