Trust in science, social consensus and vaccine confidence

Trust in science is important for vaccine confidence, and this is true for countries as well as individuals. Sturgis et al. find that confidence in vaccination is higher in countries where people agree that scientists are trustworthy. While scholarly attention to date has focused almost entirely on individual-level drivers of vaccine confidence, we show that macro-level factors play an important role in understanding individual propensity to be confident about vaccination. We analyse data from the 2018 Wellcome Global Monitor survey covering over 120,000 respondents in 126 countries to assess how societal-level trust in science is related to vaccine confidence. In countries with a high aggregate level of trust in science, people are more likely to be confident about vaccination, over and above their individual-level scientific trust. Additionally, we show that societal consensus around trust in science moderates these individual-level and country-level relationships. In countries with a high level of consensus regarding the trustworthiness of science and scientists, the positive correlation between trust in science and vaccine confidence is stronger than it is in comparable countries where the level of social consensus is weaker.

Automated summary

Trust in science is crucial for vaccine confidence, both at the individual and country level. Countries with a high level of societal trust in science are more likely to have confident populations in regards to vaccines. Additionally, societal consensus around trust in science moderates the relationship between scientific trust and vaccine confidence, with stronger correlations in countries with higher levels of social consensus.