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Novel research shows that mental flexibility can influence our approach to vaccinations
Oct
Making decisions about our health is a convoluted and sometimes hard process.
In addition to our own attitudes, experiences, and perspectives, we are inundated with information from others (friends, family, health care professionals) and from external sources (news or social media) about what it means to be vigorous.
Sometimes this information is consistent with what we think about our own health. Other times it may go against our beliefs. To complicate matters further, sometimes this information is intentional misinformation.
How do we make sense of all this when making decisions about our health? What determines whether we stick to our attitude or change our mind?
Most of us can probably relate to this. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had to change many of our behaviors to tardy the spread of the virus. This meant working from home, wearing a mask, staying in our bubbles, and ultimately getting the vaccine.
Although for many people the decision to get vaccinated was obvious, for others it was not so plain. Tests from the period immediately before the Covid vaccine was available in Novel Zealand showed that a significant minority were unsure or unlikely to be vaccinated.
They were mostly newborn, women and less educated, and their concerns were mainly about unknown future side effects. Our new research suggests that cognitive (mental) flexibility may also have something to do with attitudes towards vaccinations.
Elastic mind
Previous research suggests that mental flexibility plays an essential role in decision-making. Imagine changing the way you do something at work, having a discussion with someone who has a different opinion, or being told that you should make healthier choices (e.g. exercise more).
Some people handle these situations with ease. Others have a harder time adapting. Mental flexibility describes this ability to adjust our attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors in the face of up-to-date or changing information.
Research shows that mental flexibility affects how our opinions are extremewhat is the probability that we will do this believe in disinformation or “fraudulent news,” whether or not we do it pro-ecological choices or get involved health-promoting behaviors (for example, sun protection or exercise).
To augment vaccination coverage, governments often employ educational campaigns that emphasize the safety, effectiveness and importance of vaccinations. However, these campaigns it doesn’t always work out in reducing the feeling of uncertainty about vaccinations.
Read more: Vaccine hesitancy is one of the biggest threats to global health, and the pandemic has made it worse
We wanted to know why and thought mental flexibility might play a role. To find out, we surveyed 601 Novel Zealanders about their opinions and experiences of vaccination.
Some questions asked about external factors, such as how simple they thought it was to access vaccines or whether they could purchase vaccines. Other questions focused on internal factors, such as personal beliefs about vaccinations, perceptions of their own health, and how essential or secure they think vaccines are.
Overall, our participants reported few external barriers to vaccination, and 97% said vaccines were available or affordable. These percentages are promising and may reflect government values further efforts to make it easier to get the vaccine.
In comparison, internal factors played a larger role in vaccine uncertainty or hesitancy. Specifically, almost a quarter (22%) of participants reported concerns about health risks associated with vaccines. And 12% said they did not trust the processes or people who developed the vaccines.
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Testing adaptive behavior
We also asked our participants to play a game designed to measure mental flexibility.
It involved matching cards based on a certain rule – for example, match cards with the same number of objects. This rule changed randomly throughout the game, which meant that participants had to adjust their behavior throughout the game.
Interestingly, people who found it more hard to adapt to regulatory changes (meaning they had lower levels of mental flexibility) also reported more internal barriers to vaccination.
For example, when we divided participants into two groups based on their mental flexibility, the low flexibility group was 18% more likely to say that vaccinations were inconsistent with their beliefs. They were 14% more likely to say they did not trust vaccines and 11% more likely to report concerns about negative side effects of vaccines.
This did not apply to external factors. Mental flexibility did not predict whether people believed that vaccines were available and affordable.
Information is sometimes not enough
These results suggest that making decisions about our health – including whether or not to get vaccinated – depends on more than just receiving the “right” information.
Simply talking about the importance of vaccinations may not be enough to change attitudes or behaviors. It also depends on each person’s unique cognitive style – the way they perceive and process information.
Since then, falling vaccination rates have been a problem around the world, including in Novel Zealand long before the pandemic. Our findings suggest that health education campaigns may be more effective if they take into account the role of cognitive flexibility.
One technique is to change the way information is framed. For example, instead of simply presenting facts about the safety or importance of vaccinations, educational campaigns can encourage us to question our own perspectives or to imagine alternative realities by asking “what if?” questions.
Tests shows that this type of framing can engage our deliberative thought processes (those that aid us think deeply and critically), augment mental flexibility, and ultimately make us more open to change.
