Public vaccine distrust

The development of distrust.

Preschool-age children's reasoning about the reliability of deceptive sources was investigated. Ninety 3- to 5-year-olds watched several trials in which an informant gave advice about the location of a hidden sticker. Informants were either helpers who were happy to give correct advice, or trickers who were happy to give incorrect advice. Three-year-olds tended to accept all advice from both he...

Distrust, race, and research.

BACKGROUND Investigators have voiced concerns that distrust of research and the medical community impedes successful recruitment of African Americans into clinical research. OBJECTIVES To examine possible differences in distrust by race and to determine to what extent other sociodemographic factors explain any racial differences in distrust. METHODS We analyzed data from 527 African America...

Hurdles to herd immunity: Distrust of government and vaccine refusal in the US, 2002-2003.

High rates of nonmedical exemptions (NMEs) from required childhood vaccinations have contributed to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and pertussis. Understanding the parental decision to obtain an NME could help health professionals and public health programs improve vaccination rates in areas with high vaccine refusal. Using a 2002-2003 multi-state survey of parents o...

Trust, Distrust, and Power

Distrust and Political Turnover∗

We present findings that document one way in which a society’s culture can affect political outcomes. Examining an annual panel of democratic countries over six decades, we show that severe economic downturns are more likely to cause political turnover in countries that have lower levels of generalized trust. We find no such relationship in non-democratic countries or on irregular leader turnov...