The proliferation of anti-vaccination arguments, especially on the Internet and social media, is a threat to the success of many immunisation programmes. The EU-funded JITSUVAX project aims to design effective resources that help to rebut misinformation about vaccinations.
According to the JITSUVAX team, effective rebuttal of contrarian arguments requires an approach that goes beyond addressing flaws in the arguments, by also considering the roots of these attitudes, i.e. the underlying psychological attributes driving a person's belief of opposition to vaccines.
Thus, the JITSUVAX team has published a new learning resource that helps to identify attitude roots and design tailored rebuttals in conversations, for example in doctor-patient conversations. Users of the resource can learn about the eleven attitude roots of opposition to vaccines. JITSUVAX team member Dr. Philipp Schmid says:
Once we understand the motivation behind an argument, we can tailor our response to the needs of the individual and avoid ineffective "one size fits all" responses.
But the learning resource does not only provide knowledge about motivations. Users can access detailes responses to refute 62 different minsinformation around vaccination. This learning resource is designed to equip any user with context that can help balance arguments and debunk vaccine disinformation in the future.
You can access the resource here.
JITSUVAX is a sister project to IMMUNION. You can check out other related initiatives here.