ArticleNature communications2023
Providing normative information increases intentions to accept a COVID-19 vaccine.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- Communication-based interventions to increase COVID-19 vaccine willingness and uptake: a systematic review with meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Nationwide demonstration of improved COVID-19 vaccination uptake through behavioural reminders.Nature human behaviour · 2025Trial
- An effective COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy intervention focused on the relative risks of vaccination and infection.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Authority endorsements backfire and social norms fail to increase vaccination intent in post-COVID Kazakhstan.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- A new experimental approach to manipulate social identity and social norms about protective behaviors in a virtual social environment.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Partisan differences in healthcare decision-making: Evidence from a vaccine experiment.PloS one · 2026Article
- Article
- Economic shock and the erosion of COVID-19 precautionary behavior in Canada during the early pandemic.PloS one · 2026Article
- Social networks and vaccination: a perspective on the essential role of social networks to improve vaccination outcomes in public health.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Framing effects of health education materials on rural public intention for dog vaccination against rabies in China.BMC veterinary research · 2025Article
- "A heart of the man is lighter than that of the woman…" exploring men's motivation and capability to access HIV services in Lusaka, Zambia: findings from the Yaba Guy Che study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The persuasive potential of AI-paraphrased information at scale.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- The Association Between Cultural Tightness and COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence From 28 Countries: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic Differences in Vaccination Coverage After a Mandatory Vaccination Law, 1855-1900.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- When and why do people change their minds in favor of vaccination? Longitudinal analyses of switching COVID-19 vaccination preferences.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Political polarization and health.Nature medicine · 2024Review
- Article
- Reconsidering inequalities in COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Germany: a spatiotemporal analysis combining individual educational level and area-level socioeconomic deprivation.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite the availability of multiple safe vaccines, vaccine hesitancy may present a challenge to successful control of the COVID-19 pandemic. As with many human behaviors, people's vaccine acceptance may be affected by their beliefs about whether others will accept a vaccine (i.e., descriptive norms). However, information about these descriptive norms may have different effects depending on the actual descriptive norm, people's baseline beliefs, and the relative importance of conformity, social learning, and free-riding. Here, using a pre-registered, randomized experiment (N = 484,239) embedded in an international survey (23 countries), we show that accurate information about descriptive norms can increase intentions to accept a vaccine for COVID-19. We find mixed evidence that information on descriptive norms impacts mask wearing intentions and no statistically significant evidence that it impacts intentions to physically distance. The effects on vaccination intentions are largely consistent across the 23 included countries, but are concentrated among people who were otherwise uncertain about accepting a vaccine. Providing normative information in vaccine communications partially corrects individuals' underestimation of how many other people will accept a vaccine. These results suggest that presenting people with information about the widespread and growing acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines helps to increase vaccination intentions.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.