A study conducted at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic shows that a financial incentive can convince a large part of those who are reluctant to vaccinate.
- The proportion of fully vaccinated people in France is 77.9%
- An experiment conducted in the United States shows that an incentive of 1,000 dollars would make it possible to reach the rate of vaccination of 87%
87% vaccinated! This is the rate reached in a study which evaluated the effect of a financial incentive for vaccination when the Covid pandemic had started but before the anti-Covid vaccines were available. And 87% is much more than 77.9% which is the proportion of French people who are completely vaccinated today. So, should we pay the refractories to further improve vaccination coverage and really ensure collective immunity?
This is the question to which some answers have been provided by this study carried out in December 2020 by behavioral economists from the University of Toronto. Their work, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communicationsanalyzed the behaviors of 2,500 participants who were asked if they planned to get vaccinated and if so under what conditions.
A $1,000 incentive
Among those who answered “yes” to vaccination, a count was made of the proportions of those who placed a condition on it: 68% of respondents posing the condition of free treatment, 75% that of the absence of side effects, which means that many actually had multiple conditions.
But what is most interesting in this study is the response of those who did not wish to be vaccinated and who were asked how much money would make them change their minds. An incentive of 500 dollars (460 euros) raised to 80% the proportion of those who finally agreed to be vaccinated. And an incentive of 1,000 dollars (930 euros) brought this proportion to 87%!
Influencing behavior change
“This says a lot about how financial incentives can be used to influence behavior change“, remarks Vivek Nandur, a doctoral student at the University of Toronto. But venality is not the only driver of final acceptance: “Aside from the money, it should be remembered that the people who were more willing to be vaccinated against Covid wanted above all for the vaccine to be effective and without side effects.“, adds Vivek Nandur.
It is, however, interesting to compare the results of this study with the effects of the measure taken in 2021 by the governor of West Virginia to offer 100 dollars of compulsory savings to people aged 16 to 35 (the most reserved on the vaccine anti-Covid) in exchange for their vaccination. This initiative made it possible to very quickly increase the rate of vaccination of this state from 52% to… 70%!
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