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Vaccine skeptics actually think differently than other people:
In 2000, the measles virus was declared eliminated from the United States. Despite cases coming in from outside the country, there were few outbreaks because most people were vaccinated against measles. And then 2019 happened.
The U.S. saw 1,282 confirmed cases in 31 states -- the greatest number reported since 1992, with nearly three-fourths linked to recent outbreaks in New York, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most cases were among people who were not vaccinated against measles.
After events like this, many people express confusion about others' hesitancy or unwillingness to get vaccinated or to vaccinate their children, a concept called vaccine skepticism. As vaccine skepticism has become increasingly widespread, two researchers in the Texas Tech University Department of Psychological Sciences have suggested a possible explanation.
In an article published recently in the journal Vaccine, Mark LaCour and Tyler Davis suggest some people find vaccines risky because they overestimate the likelihood of negative events, particularly those that are rare.
The fact that these overestimations carry over through all kinds of negative events -- not just those related to vaccines -- suggests that people higher in vaccine skepticism actually may process information differently than people lower in vaccine skepticism, said Davis, an associate professor of experimental psychology and director of the Caprock FMRI Laboratory.
"We might have assumed that people who are high in vaccine skepticism would have overestimated the likelihood of negative vaccine-related events, but it is more surprising that this is true for negative, mortality-related events as a broader category," Davis said. "Here we saw an overestimation of rare events for things that don't have anything to do with vaccination. This suggests that there are basic cognitive or affective variables that influence vaccine skepticism."
[...] "Do some people encode scary stories -- for instance, hearing about a child that has a seizure after getting vaccinated -- more strongly than others and then consequently remember these anecdotes more easily?" he asked. "Do they instead have certain attitudes and search their memory harder for evidence to support this belief? Is it a bit of both? How can you counteract these processes?
"I'm excited that we're finding basic, cognitive factors that are linked with vaccine skepticism: It could end up being a way of reaching this diverse group."
Mark LaCour, Tyler Davis. Vaccine skepticism reflects basic cognitive differences in mortality-related event frequency estimation. Vaccine, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.02.052
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @03:01AM (4 children)
This strikes me as over-protective parenting. Never allow a kid to do _anything_ risky at all and they'll never be able to properly assess risk.
I notice this all the time, especially in the newest generation. It manifests in other ways -- teens not going out to a social event because they're mortally afraid that if they don't study they won't have a future; teens afraid of having sex because they're completely convinced they'll either contract disease or get pregnant. The numbers are growing, not decreasing.
(Score: 2) by Aegis on Friday April 17 2020, @02:51PM (3 children)
I'd like to see some science, as opposed to anecdote, about this.
Because it sounds like the exact same criticism leveled at every younger generation in the history of humanity.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2020, @03:46PM
There is something distinct going on here. It is snow plow parenting. My sister does it. I criticize her all the time for not letting her kids do anything without a form filled out in triplicate. She is absolutely mortified they will do/get 'something'.
I have noticed something else 'new' going on too. During this 'covid' thing. I am seeing *lots* of kids out. I had no idea some of these families even *had* kids. Something changed again.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by helel on Friday April 17 2020, @06:37PM (1 child)
Actually this looks like the opposite of the usual juvenoia. Generally people are concerned that "the kids these days" are too reckless, have too much sex, don't think about their future enough, and generally act like teenagers.
There dose indeed seem to be some evidence to support the position as well. [spiked-online.com]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday April 17 2020, @07:51PM
Wow, from complaining about the next generation going to Hell, to worrying that they're too restrained? The 40-Year-Old Virgin is nothing on them. What does a child have to do to gain approval? Or must they live without that, realizing it's not absolutely necessary?
I think it's a larger problem. It's the times. Every historic age presents a unique and sometimes unprecedented blend of challenges. Restraint seems like an awfully good idea for these times, with world population having soared far beyond any historic height, the Global Warming problem, and nuclear weapons. With that last factor, we must not and cannot resort to total war to bleed off overpopulation and give aggression an outlet.
A lot of wars were just that, a means to send troublesome, quarrelsome, stupid and violent people forth where they either end up dead or profoundly educated about the horrors of it. The usual process was to Instill in them fear and jingoism, exploiting the desperation they find themselves in perhaps through their own lack of foresight and planning, or perhaps through natural disaster for which the nation was not prepared and now is itself in desperate straits. Now, thanks to nuclear weapons, wars must be conducted with great restraint. Cold. Best not to have any at all. As solutions go, they were horrifyingly bad anyway. Good riddance.