The next presenter in this session at the IAMCR 2025 conference in Singapore is Yujie Zhong, whose interest is in attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccinations. Political ideology influences public confidence in science; media coverage affects this, and the spread of misinformation, not least also via social media, further exacerbates it. This can then lead to substantial public health concerns, like widespread vaccine hesitancy.
Specific factors here may be public confidence in vaccine scientists, satisfaction with public health officials, and concern about false and misleading information. This study explored this through a multi-wave survey of some 10,000 American respondents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ideology was found to be related to trust in scientists, satisfaction with public health officials, and concern about false information; preference for news from social media reduced the relationship between political ideology and confidence in scientists, as well as satisfaction with public health officials, but increased concern with misinformation. Confidence in scientists and satisfaction with public health officials also related to vaccination decisions, while concern about misinformation had no impact on vaccination.
