Belief correlations with parental vaccine hesitancy: results from a national survey

We conducted a nationally representative survey of parents’ beliefs and self-reported behaviors regarding childhood vaccinations. Using Bayesian selection among multivariate models, we found that beliefs, even those without any vaccine or health content, predicted vaccine hesitant behaviors better than demographics, social network effects, or scientific reasoning. The multivariate structure of beliefs combined many types of ideation that included concerns about both conspiracies and side effects. Although they are not strongly related to vaccine hesitance behavior, demographics were key predictors of beliefs. Our findings suggest pro-vaccination messaging strategies previously proposed by anthropologists and others not previously considered