by University of Hertfordshire

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

An "inflexible thinking style" could explain why some people are hesitant about taking a vaccine, new research by the University of Hertfordshire has revealed. It is a finding that could have implications for public health policy, especially during pandemics.

Researchers from Herts conducted the first study evaluating the relationship between COVID-19 "vaccine hesitancy and cognitive flexibility."

Cognitive flexibility is how good people are at responding to changing situations and changing feedback, and especially when rules change. Inflexibility is generally described as the incapacity to adjust one's behavior in response to changing circumstances, update one's knowledge, and maintain optimum decision-making.

252 people took part in this explorative study which found that those with greater vaccine hesitancy persisted with the same erroneous responses during a computerized test of flexible thinking, even when they received direct feedback telling them that their responses were no longer correct. This response pattern is the hallmark of a cognitively inflexible thinking style.

Vaccine hesitancy is quite common, occurring in approximately 12% of the population and may occur for multiple underlying reasons. In this study, researchers found the relationship between it and cognitive inflexibility can be predicted through an online test. This may be of value for public health policy in identifying this specific group.

The research, conducted between June 2021 and July 2022 after lockdown from COVID-19 was eased, has just been published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Keith Laws, professor of neuropsychology at the University of Hertfordshire's School of Psychology, led the research and said, "These findings present a challenge for public health policy. They suggest that policy needs innovative interventions to address this inflexible thinking style because simply providing information is insufficient to change behavior.

"It may be necessary to identify these specific clusters of people who show this characteristic if we want to encourage and broaden future vaccine uptake. One might compare this inflexible thinking to how some people hold inflexible political views and do not wish to be shifted from them regardless of contrary evidence."

The online task given to participants in the survey was known as the Wisconsin Card Sort Task, a widely used measure of cognitive inflexibility in studies of OCD and autism.

The University of Hertfordshire is investigating several elements of learning in relation to the pandemic, including paramedic research.

More information: L. Pellegrini et al, The inflexible mind: A critical factor in understanding and addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, Journal of Psychiatric Research (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2024.09.028

Journal information: Journal of Psychiatric Research 

Provided by University of Hertfordshire