A taxonomy of anti-vaccination arguments from a systematic literature review and text modelling

The proliferation of anti-vaccination arguments is a threat to the success of many immunization programmes. Effective rebuttal of contrarian arguments requires an approach that goes beyond addressing flaws in the arguments, by also considering the attitude roots-that is, the underlying psychological attributes driving a person's belief-of opposition to vaccines. Here, through a pre-registered systematic literature review of 152 scientific articles and thematic analysis of anti-vaccination arguments, we developed a hierarchical taxonomy that relates common arguments and themes to 11 attitude roots that explain why an individual might express opposition to vaccination. We further validated our taxonomy on coronavirus disease 2019 anti-vaccination misinformation, through a combination of human coding and machine learning using natural language processing algorithms. Overall, the taxonomy serves as a theoretical framework to link expressed opposition of vaccines to their underlying psychological processes. This enables future work to develop targeted rebuttals and other interventions that address the underlying motives of anti-vaccination arguments. Angelo Fasce et al. conducted a systematic literature review and applied natural language processing methods to develop a taxonomy that relates anti-vaccination arguments to their psychological roots.

Automated summary

This article presents a taxonomy linking anti-vaccination arguments to their psychological roots, developed through a systematic literature review and natural language processing methods. The taxonomy provides a theoretical framework for understanding the underlying motives behind opposition to vaccines, enabling targeted rebuttals and interventions. Validation was performed on anti-vaccination misinformation related to coronavirus disease 2019.