Are Anti-Vaxxers Anti-Social? Pro-Social Behavior and Compliance with Socially Beneficial Policies

Governments frequently promote socially desirable behavior through regulation or pressure, particularly during times of crisis. Using vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic as a case study, we examine how compliance with such policies relates to pro-sociality. As the pandemic entered its final stages, we experimentally measured pro-sociality among a large representative sample in Israel. We find that non-vaxxers exhibit higher levels of pro-sociality than vaxxers, challenging the common association between compliance and pro-social concerns. Looking more closely, we uncover a pattern that we term a “truncated U-shape:” non-vaccinated individuals display the highest pro-sociality, partially vaccinated the lowest, and fully vaccinated fall in between. We explore, and eventually rule out, a wide range of potential explanations, beginning with socio-demographic and attitudinal covariates and extending to the role of social norms. We consequently propose that variation in individuals’ ability to abide by their principles in the face of difficulty may account for the observed patterns. Utilizing the richness of our data, we test this channel and find evidence in its favor. Finally, we illustrate this mechanism through a formal model in which individuals differ in their ability to abide by their principles and must decide whether to vaccinate, abstain, or take a compromise action of partial vaccination. In this framework, societal stigma alongside governmental and workplace pressures associated with non-vaccination generate the behavioral patterns we document.

(with Moti Michaeli and Sapir Gavriel)

Amnon Maltz's homepage: https://sites.google.com/site/amnonmaltz