Freedom isn’t Free: The Role of Political Orientation and Authoritarianism in Predicting Citizen’s Vaccination Attitudes

Abstract According to researchers, there are two ways of measuring political ideology: in a unidimensional fashion, which examines broad differences between liberals and conservatives, and a multidimensional fashion, which examines more specific differences between liberal and conservative ideologies, such as right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. This study applies those means of measuring to vaccine ideology, with a misinformation correction either from a vaccine manufacturer, Merck, or the government agency in charge of disseminating the information, the CDC. It also examines affective differences based on ideology in reaction to the misinformation. Results show that differences in vaccine attitudes do exist based on endorsement of freedom, but not on broad measures of ideology and affect. Suggestions for future research on multidimensional measures of ideology are discussed