Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

Media Trust, Health-Related Anxiety, and Receptiveness to the COVID-19 Vaccination

We explored adults’ willingness to get the COVID vaccine. We hypothesized that adults would be more willing to get the vaccination if they also had more trust in the mainstream media, health and illness-related anxiety, or exposure to individuals who had died as a result of COVID. Participants were 50% men and 50% women with a mean age of 28.02 (SD = 11.66). The majority were Caucasian (75%) followed by African American (14%). Participants responded to an online survey that assessed media trust, illness worry, health anxiety, fear of physicians, death anxiety, and COVID opinions. Results revealed support for our predictions that adults with health-related anxiety, experience with COVID, and trust in the mainstream media would be more willing to get the COVID vaccination. We also found that people were more willing to get the vaccination if they were more politically liberal and worried about COVID. In fact, people who did not want the vaccination were more likely to cite politics as the reasoning behind that decision. We found no gender differences in desire to get the vaccination; however, women perceived the vaccination as less safe. Age, similarly, did not emerge as a predictive variable. This information may be useful to COVID researchers and scientists who are interested in those who is more likely to get the vaccine and why. This information may also help develop a better understanding of who to target to receive the vaccine to help get more people vaccinated.