Carmelo M Vicario, Stergios Makris, Laura Culicetto, Chiara Lucifora, Alessandra Falzone, Gabriella Martino, Francesca Ferraioli, Michael A Nitsche, Alessio Avenanti, Giuseppe Craparo
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective: A relevance of fear and concerns about vaccine development and its side effects are suggested to explain COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. However, evidence supporting the phobic origin hypothesis of hesitancy for COVID-19 and other vaccinations remains indirect and elusive.
Method: We addressed this issue by investigating the existence of a relationship between fear conditioning, extinction, and the respective vaccination hesitancy and anxiety scores in a group of 25 individuals.
Results: Overall, we show that the general mechanism of fear extinction learning is impaired in individuals with high vaccine hesitancy. State and trait anxiety scores do not account for this result.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that attitudes against vaccination could be linked to an altered inhibitory learning process.