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X Demographics
Mendeley readers
Attention Score in Context
| Title |
Highlighting consensus among medical scientists increases public support for vaccines: evidence from a randomized experiment
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
BMC Public Health, December 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12889-015-2541-4 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Sander L. van der Linden, Chris E. Clarke, Edward W. Maibach |
| Abstract |
A substantial minority of American adults continue to hold influential misperceptions about childhood vaccine safety. Growing public concern and refusal to vaccinate poses a serious public health risk. Evaluations of recent pro-vaccine health communication interventions have revealed mixed results (at best). This study investigated whether highlighting consensus among medical scientists about childhood vaccine safety can lower public concern, reduce key misperceptions about the discredited autism-vaccine link and promote overall support for vaccines. American adults (N = 206) were invited participate in an online survey experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control group or to one of three treatment interventions. The treatment messages were based on expert-consensus estimates and either normatively described or prescribed the extant medical consensus: "90 % of medical scientists agree that vaccines are safe and that all parents should be required to vaccinate their children". Compared to the control group, the consensus-messages significantly reduced vaccine concern (M = 3.51 vs. M = 2.93, p < 0.01) and belief in the vaccine-autism-link (M = 3.07 vs M = 2.15, p < 0.01) while increasing perceived consensus about vaccine safety (M = 83.93 vs M = 89.80, p < 0.01) and public support for vaccines (M = 5.66 vs M = 6.22, p < 0.01). Mediation analysis further revealed that the public's understanding of the level of scientific agreement acts as an important "gateway" belief by promoting public attitudes and policy support for vaccines directly as well as indirectly by reducing endorsement of the discredited autism-vaccine link. These findings suggest that emphasizing the medical consensus about (childhood) vaccine safety is likely to be an effective pro-vaccine message that could help prevent current immunization rates from declining. We recommend that clinicians and public health officials highlight and communicate the high degree of medical consensus on (childhood) vaccine safety when possible. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 41 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 12 | 29% |
| Italy | 4 | 10% |
| United Kingdom | 2 | 5% |
| Australia | 2 | 5% |
| Canada | 1 | 2% |
| Spain | 1 | 2% |
| Ireland | 1 | 2% |
| Germany | 1 | 2% |
| El Salvador | 1 | 2% |
| Other | 2 | 5% |
| Unknown | 14 | 34% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 26 | 63% |
| Scientists | 9 | 22% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 3 | 7% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 2 | 5% |
| Unknown | 1 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 232 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 232 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 45 | 19% |
| Student > Master | 36 | 16% |
| Researcher | 29 | 13% |
| Student > Bachelor | 21 | 9% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 16 | 7% |
| Other | 28 | 12% |
| Unknown | 57 | 25% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | 51 | 22% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 29 | 13% |
| Social Sciences | 26 | 11% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 17 | 7% |
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 7 | 3% |
| Other | 37 | 16% |
| Unknown | 65 | 28% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 152. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 February 2024.
All research outputs
#274,069
of 25,715,849 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#242
of 17,780 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#4,220
of 397,186 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#3
of 230 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,715,849 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 17,780 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 397,186 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 230 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.