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Vaccine rejection being represented as a free, autonomous or empowered personal choice
Reactance is a well-known psychological construct which describes an individual’s tendency to defend their autonomy when they perceive that others are trying to impose their will on them.
Individuals who have high reactance may respond to any health advice as an infringement on their ability to choose an action for themselves. High reactance has been consistently associated with vaccine hesitancy.
Reactance manifests in arguments proclaiming that the decision of whether or not to vaccinate must be completely free and autonomous. Reactance tends to be associated with a high sense of personal autonomy and empowerment, and with a view of civil liberties that includes the right to act contrary to social norms and political injunctions.
This theme sets out vaccination as a personal decision that should be left up to the individual, often invoking the term ‘choice’ or ‘autonomy’, and claiming that people can make responsible, informed decisions to refuse a vaccine. This is also often seen as a sense of empowerment and bodily control.
Everyone should indeed have the autonomy to make decisions about their medical care. It is appropriate to fight back against condescending or coercive messages. People do have the right to make decisions for themselves that are not dictated by others.
Dialogue between patients and healthcare professionals is most productive if it is guided by empathy, and an opportunity for the patient to affirm the reasons underlying their attitudes and to express understanding for that. That’s why it is important to understand the attitude roots behind people’s overt opinions. To affirm a person’s underlying attitude root does not mean we need to agree with the specifics of their argument. For example, we can acknowledge that:
Everyone should indeed have the autonomy to make decisions about their medical care. It is appropriate to fight back against condescending or coercive messages. People do have the right to make decisions for themselves that are not dictated by others.
When we have autonomy over our medical decisions, we are also responsible for the consequences of our decision—such as falling ill or making others ill. We thus need to think carefully about what those consequences will be, both for ourselves and for others around us, like our families.
Vaccinations have the power to protect us and our loved ones from potentially life-threatening diseases. For example, vaccination has managed to successfully suppress measles, a disease that used to cause more than 2.6 million deaths globally each year.
Deciding to get vaccinated can be one of the most empowering medical decisions you make for yourself.
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