The Antivax Phenomenon: Trust and Misinformation

This chapter examines the harmful effects of misinformation on anti-vaccine attitudes in Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Singapore. In doing so, the chapter underscores the role of government trust. Anti-vaccine attitudes are considered major negative consequences of both the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and the distrust in authorities such as governments during the pandemic. Findings reveal that respondents’ anti-vaccine attitudes were related to exposure to and sharing of misinformation. Higher levels of elaboration about misinformation and trust in government, however, helped decrease the negative effects of encounters with misinformation. We found cross-city differences in anti-vaccine attitudes—residents in Beijing had significantly higher trust in vaccines than did their counterparts from Hong Kong, Taipei, and Singapore.