People with a strong interest in celebrities are not more likely than others to question the effectiveness of vaccines. However, new research published in Psychology, Health & Medicine indicates that celebrity worship is linked to several other types of anti-vaccination beliefs.
“I believe that anti-vaccination attitudes are a critical factor in understanding people’s vaccination intentions and behaviors,” explained study author Lisset Martinez-Berman of Texas A&M University-San Antonio.
“I am interested in predictors of anti-vaccination attitudes, so I wanted to explore whether celebrities were related to anti-vaccination attitudes. Anti-vaccination celebrities seem to be prominent in the media and celebrities in general have an inordinate amount influence on the public.”
The researchers surveyed 320 U.S. adults via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform. General interest in celebrities and more serious forms of celebrity admiration, such as a pathological obsession with…
