Trust in experts, media literacy and COVID-19 vaccine willingness are correlated

One survey found that respondents' willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines had more to do with their media literacy and perceptions of health experts than with virus knowledge or previous vaccination
behaviors.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, researchers at Washington State University also found that for respondents who recently refused to get a flu vaccine, increased COVID-19 knowledge was actually associated with
lower willingness to get vaccinated in the future.
For the study, researchers surveyed 1,264 U.
S.
adults online
.
The findings suggest that people engage in so-called motivational reasoning: people consciously and selectively use facts to draw conclusions that reinforce the beliefs they want, rather than the mental process
of rationally analyzing evidence.
This process has been heavily influenced
by the changing news environment.
It's a maze of information, containing misinformation—unintentional incorrectness, and false information—intentional errors
.

"We have long known that knowledge and previous behaviors can provide useful clues to people's behavior, but this is often not enough to reliably predict behavior
.
" "We found that measuring trust in experts, the ability to identify reliable media sources, and the ability to critically evaluate those media sources were stronger predictors
than previous vaccine behavior or prior knowledge.
" "Some people have an incentive to use this misinformation and make up a whole bunch of misinformation, even disinformation, in an attempt to sell you an idea or product
based on it," the authors said.
"Most of the time, they sell you all instead of doing good things for you; They usually do what
is good for them.
”

The findings have important implications
for health promotion practices and research.
It highlights the importance of individuals trying to independently verify information and the need to
foster their trust in health experts.
The researchers also recommend that public health campaigns ensure respect for individuals' freedom to make their own decisions, while helping them make decisions
based on accurate information from reliable sources.