A Novel Regulatory Response to Vaccine Hesitancy: The Role of Trustworthiness in Inoculation Messaging
Brydon Timothy Wang1, Samuel Roach1, Queensland University of Technology Brisbane 1Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Abstract
One of the strategies available to address vaccine hesitancy is inoculation messaging (‘IM’). Extensive studies over six decades have demonstrated that IM as a health policy strategy can confer resistance against persuasive falsehoods. This strategy seeks to prevent individuals from developing mistaken beliefs, empowering recipients to identify the techniques that are often used to mislead and misinform. However, this strategy is dependent on whether the source of such IM is perceived as trustworthy. Such perceptions of trustworthiness are built on the signals of three trustworthy elements: ability–the perceived expertise that the source holds in relation to vaccination and wider health policy; integrity—the alignment of the source with the shared values of the intended recipient of the IM strategy; and benevolence—the perception that the source holds a positive orientation towards the individual intended recipient. Further, IM requires repeated ‘booster inoculations’ to sustain long-term resistance against persuasive falsehoods. As the object of the IM strategy seeks to modify the beliefs of the recipient to ensure resistance to developing mistaken beliefs towards vaccination, early adoption of IM has an additional passive effect of reinforcing the signals of integrity with subsequent encounters with the strategy. This paper examines the role of trustworthiness in ensuring the sustained success of IM public health strategies and regulatory objects. In doing so, this paper seeks to highlight the crucial role trustworthiness plays in health law and policy.
Biography
Dr Brydon Wang is an author, lawyer and scholar researching at the confluence of law, technology and trustworthiness. His research focuses on how we can increase trustworthiness of decision-making and governance in the design and deployment of policy and technology.
Mr Samuel Roach is an interdisciplinary researcher and lecturer in the School of Law at QUT. He is a committee member of the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law and a Chief Investigator in the Australia Centre of Health Law and Research. Sam’s doctoral thesis examines the role of law in preventing vaccine hesitancy.