Why some people do not get vaccinated against COVID‐19: Social‐cognitive determinants of vaccination behavior

It is puzzling that a sizeable percentage of people refuse to get vaccinated against COVID‐19. This study aimed to examine social psychological factors influencing their vaccine hesitancy. This longitudinal study traced a cohort of 2663 individuals in 25 countries from the time before COVID‐19 vaccines became available (March 2020) to July 2021, when vaccination was widely available. Multilevel logistic regressions were used to examine determinants of actual COVID‐19 vaccination behavior by July 2021, with country‐level intercept as random effect. Of the 2663 participants, 2186 (82.1%) had been vaccinated by July 2021. Participants' attitude toward COVID‐19 vaccines was the strongest predictor of both vaccination intention and subsequent vaccination behavior (p < .001). Perceived risk of getting infected and perceived personal disturbance of infection were also associated with higher likelihood of getting vaccinated (p < .001). However, religiosity, right‐wing political orientation, conspiracy beliefs, and low trust in government regarding COVID‐19 were negative predictors of vaccination intention and behavior (p < .05). Our findings highlight the importance of attitude toward COVID‐19 vaccines and also suggest that certain life‐long held convictions that predate the pandemic make people distrustful of their government and likely to accept conspiracy beliefs and therefore less likely to adopt the vaccination behavior.