Information Seeking and Processing in the Context of Vaccine Scandals

"[I]nformation quality and accessibility to information channels influence information seeking, which is a... finding with theoretical and practical implications for other science communication issues."

Repeated vaccine scandals have shaken Chinese parents' confidence in vaccine safety. For example, in 2019, over 100 children received expired polio vaccines in eastern China. The country's information environment is heavily monitored by the government, meaning that people have more limited access to information, including about vaccination. This study examines what social cognitive factors motivate people to search for risk information in a highly censored media system, using the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model. The goal, from a communication perspective, was to identify motivational factors that drive Chinese parents to actively seek information about the vaccine scandals and process relevant information in a thoughtful and elaborate manner ("systematic processing").

In discussing the recent scandals, the researchers note that public risk perception about vaccine safety increased as a result of these scandals - as evidenced, for example, by parents searching and sharing information on social media about their lack of trust in domestic vaccines. However, the actual risk posed by substandard vaccines was low. Nevertheless, the lack of accurate information about the vaccine scandals may lead to other negative consequences, such as hesitation about vaccination that did not previously exist.

The RISP model was developed based on the heuristic systematic model (HSM) and the theory of planned behaviour (TBP) to depict sociopsychological factors that influence individuals' risk-related information seeking and information processing, as well as their subsequent belief, attitude, and behaviour. In brief: "The RISP model proposes that information insufficiency and informational subjective norms motivate active seeking and systematic processing, while perceived hazard characteristics, affective responses, and other individual characteristics contribute to these two primary motivational factors. Furthermore, relevant channel beliefs and perceived information gathering capacity influence seeking and processing by exerting either direct or interactive effects."

Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey conducted in May 2019 among 354 parents in Mainland China. Central findings:

• Chinese parents who already know a lot about the vaccine scandals, as well as those who perceive strong social pressure to maintain high level of information about this issue, have higher information sufficiency threshold (the amount of information one would need to achieve sufficient understanding of a risk topic).
• Perceived hazard characteristics influence information seeking and information processing indirectly through the more central motivational factors - information insufficiency and informational subjective norms (i.e. those who believe that others want them to stay on top of information). When these antecedent variables are assessed along with the key predictors in the model, they are not significantly related to information seeking or systematic processing.
• When controlling for negative emotion, positive emotion (i.e., hope) is negatively related to information seeking. That is, Chinese parents who feel more hopeful are less likely to seek information about the vaccine scandals, perhaps because they are optimistic that the Chinese government will deal with this crisis. This result is unsurprising given the general confidence that most Chinese people have in the Chinese government to maintain public health and the high vaccination rate in China.
• Even where people can easily access information, when it comes to an important risk topic, people still carefully evaluate different information channels. Chinese parents who perceive themselves to have the highest ability to obtain information about the vaccine scandals are least likely to seek information from the media if they view these information channels as biased. The latter result probably indicates a certain degree of information fatigue. Together, these results suggest that Chinese parents who view information about the vaccine scandals in the media as biased and incomplete are less likely to seek information on this topic actively, and this relationship is particularly strong among participants who believe they know how to access and understand information about the vaccine scandals.
• Chinese parents who are knowledgeable about the vaccine scandals are open to additional information, and this existing knowledge does not deter them from vaccinating their children.

Implications/recommendations:

• Risk communication messaging can encourage people to inform themselves on this issue by mentioning that socially important others would like them to stay informed. Thus, to encourage Chinese parents to continue to vaccinate their children, communication messages can highlight the fact that almost all Chinese parents vaccinate their children (descriptive norms) or that not vaccinating your children is disapproved by others (injunctive norms).
• Communication messaging needs to urge Chinese parents to validate the information they encounter to develop greater knowledge about the vaccine scandals. For instance, parents should seek vaccine-related information through credible sources such as the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Moreover, when encountering information on social media, they should validate it through credible sources.
• Addressing accuracy motivation, communication messages can strategically increase Chinese parents' information insufficiency by highlighting the gap between existing knowledge and accurate information. For instance, it may be worthwhile to debunk the myth surrounding the 2018 vaccine scandal regarding the safety of substandard diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccines. By alerting Chinese parents that what they have heard about the vaccine scandals may not be accurate, it seems possible to motivate them to make more informed decisions about vaccination.
• Tailored information of high relevance to different audiences should be provided to the public to mobilise sufficient public attention and societal resources to solve a social problem.
• Chinese policymakers and communication practitioners need to closely monitor public risk perception surrounding the vaccine scandals and vaccination in general.

The researchers highlight one finding in particular: the moderating effect of perceived information gathering capacity on the relationship between relevant channel beliefs and information seeking, which "suggests that while attending to social norms, Chinese parents are calculative and deliberate when seeking information about the vaccine scandals. This is welcoming news from a communication standpoint because although living in a highly censored media system, Chinese parents do not simply believe everything they encounter in the media about this important social problem. Rather, those who engage in careful and systematic processing of relevant information are more likely to express an intention to vaccinate their children in the future, perhaps because they are able to understand that the substandard vaccines involved in the most recent vaccine scandal are ineffective, yet at the same time, not directly harmful. In other words, the repeated vaccine scandals did not appear to quiver Chinese parents' fundamental confidence in vaccination."

In conclusion: "the negative relationship between hope and information seeking and the negative relationship between perceived hazard characteristics and vaccination intention suggest that public health officials and communication practitioners need to carefully monitor public risk perception about vaccine safety, foster social trust, and encourage Chinese citizens to develop greater literacy about this issue."