Some Underlying Psychological Mechanisms of the Anti Vaccination Movement

  • Gabriel Andrade Lecturer at Department of Behavioral Sciences, Xavier University School of Medicine, Aruba
Keywords: Autism, Vaccines, Anti Vaccination Movement, Psychological Mechanisms, Behavior.

Abstract

The Anti Vaccination Movement grew out as a result of Andrew Wakefield’s claims regarding the link between autism and vaccines. Although his claims have been massively refuted, and it was later evident that he engaged in gross ethical misconduct, adherents to the Anti Vaccination Movement persist in their belief that vaccines cause autism. In this article, I explore three psychological mechanisms that partly explain why the Anti Vaccination Movement keeps its strength. First, conditioning: most parents of autistic children discover their child’s condition at around the same time they receive vaccines shots, and this facilitates the association of those two events in their minds. Second, modeling: the endorsement of the Anti Vaccination Movement by celebrities encourages people to believe in their mistaken theories. Third, agency detection: the Anti Vaccination Movement relies on conspiratorial thinking, and this way of thinking is based on the natural tendency of all humans to attribute agency to purposeless events.

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Published
2017-12-06
How to Cite
Andrade, G. (2017). Some Underlying Psychological Mechanisms of the Anti Vaccination Movement. Journal of Progressive Research in Social Sciences, 6(2), 443-450. Retrieved from http://scitecresearch.com/journals/index.php/jprss/article/view/1351
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Articles