Replication Data for: The Messenger Matters: Religious Leaders and Overcoming COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy

Experts agree that vaccination is the most effective way to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. Nevertheless, vaccination rates have slowed nationwide and large segments of the population report an unwillingness to get vaccinated. We conducted an online survey experiment to investigate if endorsement from various types of leaders can encourage the unvaccinated population to receive the vaccine. We surveyed 709 unvaccinated registered voters in South Dakota in April, 2021 and presented them with identical messages endorsing vaccination from a political, religious, or medical leader. Our results show that messaging from a religious leader has a positive and statistically significant effect on interest in getting vaccinated, while messages from a political or medical leader have no statistically significant effect. These results strongly suggest that religious leaders are more effective messengers than other potential messengers and that public health officials would be well served to coordinate their efforts with leaders in faith communities.

专家共识认为，疫苗接种是控制新冠（COVID-19）疫情最有效的手段。然而，全国范围内的疫苗接种率增速放缓，且大量民众表示不愿接种疫苗。为此，我们设计并开展了一项在线调查实验，旨在探究不同类型领袖的疫苗接种支持宣传，能否促使未接种人群完成疫苗接种。本研究于2021年4月，对南达科他州的709名未接种疫苗的登记选民开展调查，向其展示由政治领袖、宗教领袖或医疗领袖分别发布的、内容完全一致的疫苗接种支持宣传信息。研究结果显示，宗教领袖发布的宣传信息对民众的疫苗接种意愿具有正向且统计学显著性的影响，而政治领袖或医疗领袖发布的宣传信息则未展现出统计学意义上的显著效果。上述研究结果有力表明，宗教领袖相较于其他潜在宣传者更为高效，公共卫生官员若与信仰社区的领袖开展协作，将能显著提升工作成效。