Comparing Relative Strengths of Statistical Associations Between Psychological Traits and Vaccination-Related Outcomes I

The goal of this study was to identify psychological motives that had the strongest statistical associations with vaccine outcomes in order to identify novel intervention targets to be used in vaccine promotion efforts. A national sample of US adults completed an online survey containing a variety of vaccine-related measures and psychological trait measures.

A national sample of US adults were recruited through Dynata, an online survey panel company, to complete an online survey. Participants completed a variety of vaccine-related survey items and an unprecedented number (\>20) of psychological trait measures. This was possible by using a Planned Missingness Design, where respondents only answer a predetermined subset of survey questions, which allows us to include more measures without significantly increasing the burden for participants. Participants were randomized to one of the three question blocks, where each block had a predetermined set of items that were roughly 1/3 of the items from each psychological trait measure. They were also randomized to complete questions that were about the psychological traits in general or about vaccines specifically.