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.学界普遍认为，疫苗接种是遏制COVID-19疫情的最有效手段。然而，全国范围内的疫苗接种增速已然放缓，且大量民众明确表示不愿接种疫苗。本研究设计并开展了一项线上调查实验，旨在探究不同身份领袖的疫苗接种支持宣传，能否推动未接种人群完成疫苗接种。2021年4月，我们调研了美国南达科他州的709名未接种疫苗的登记选民，并向其展示了分别来自政治领袖、宗教领袖与医疗领袖的同款疫苗接种支持宣传话术。研究结果显示，宗教领袖的宣传话术对民众的疫苗接种意愿具有正向且统计学意义显著的影响；而政治领袖或医疗领袖的宣传话术，则未体现出统计学意义上的显著效果。上述结论有力表明，宗教领袖相较于其他潜在宣传使者，具备更优异的宣传效能；同时也提示公共卫生官员可通过与宗教社群领袖开展协作，优化公共卫生防疫工作的开展成效。