Extroverts are against vaccinations
Last reviewed: 07.06.2024
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Why do some people easily go to doctors for vaccinations, while others are hesitant and resist to the last minute? Representatives of the Universities of Texas and Toronto decided to study the relationship between attitudes to vaccinations and psychological personality traits. The experiment involved more than forty thousand Canadians, who for a year were tested on five psychological characteristics often used for personality descriptions. These were extroversion, compromise, conscientiousness, neuroticism (emotionality), and striving for improvement. In addition, participants were asked about their attitudes toward anticovidae vaccination.
The results of the study revealed that people who strive for improvement, are conscientious and ready to compromise had a positive attitude to the introduction of vaccines. Potential neurotics, on the contrary, predominantly expressed the opinion to refuse vaccination, which, in principle, was predictable. However, absolutely unexpected for the scientists was the reaction of extroverts - these people were also more inclined to refuse the anti-vaccination.
It is known that extroverts are sociable, expressive people with an active life position. They get satisfaction from a lot of communication, interaction with other people. This is what fills them with energy, gives them rest and fills them with information.
Scientists note that they did not expect such a reaction from extroverts, because usually such people demonstrate readiness for everything new. Why were the results opposite?
Most likely, extroverts need absolute guarantees that the vaccination will not harm them and will be completely safe. After all, they usually require clear designation of all steps and stages, actions and consequences of something, they are characterized by self-confidence, but not always by confidence in others. Among other possible explanations for this phenomenon is the stubbornness and impulsiveness of extroverts, their tendency to protests and elaborate provocations. That is, if the majority of opponents vote in favor, an extrovert is very likely to vote against, simply because he or she wants to be different. A certain role is also played by stubbornness ("why should I agree", "and I want to do things my own way", etc.).
It is important to clarify that the question was not about the appropriateness of vaccination in general, but specifically about vaccinating oneself. Perhaps if the question had been posed differently, the results would have been different. For example, participants could have been asked if they would like their relatives or friends, or just strangers, to be vaccinated. Often, opinions about oneself are different from those about someone else. This is not surprising; such behavior is consistent with most human mental characteristics.
For a more detailed description of the study, see Frontiers in Psychology