"It's your fault!" - said the vaccinated to the unvaccinated. The effect of COVID-19 vaccination on responsibility attribution

Little is known about what determines the perceptions of a person who may have infected someone with COVID-19. We examined how observers' perception is affected by (not) being vaccinated against COVID-19 by 1) the observer (study participants), 2) the infectious actor (who is assessed), and 3) the infected person. Overall, 395 participants were assigned to one of four conditions which differed in who was vaccinated or not. We found that vaccinated observers (as opposed to unvaccinated) attributed more responsibility for infection to the unvaccinated actor, whom they perceived as less moral, trustworthy, and empathetic. Generally, it did not affect observers' evaluation of the actor whether the infected person was vaccinated, just as it did not affect unvaccinated observers whether the actor was vaccinated or not. Our results suggest that unvaccinated individuals may be negatively assessed by vaccinated ones when they are suspected of being the source of COVID-19 infections.