Results of the present study (Table 1), revealed that the majority of participants (63.55%) exhibit negative attitudes towards Covid-19 vaccine, and just above the third of participants have positive attitudes towards vaccine. Similar studies on attitudes and beliefs have showed similar trend of negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccine among the general populations, including health care professionals (Schneider et al. 2021; Danabal et al. 2021). Studies on the issue of positive/ negative attitudes towards Covid-19 vaccine showed contradictory results, depending on the demographic characteristics of the population. Health care professionals are more likely to be in favor of covid-19 vaccine uptake, particularly doctors (Spinewine et al. 2021; Salazar and Barochiner 2021; Paudel et al. 2021). Higher level of education has been reported to be associated with positive attitudes to covid-19 vaccine (Rhodes et al. 2020; Shekhar et al. 2021; Rapisarda et al. 2021). Older age groups have a significant association with a positive attitude against COVID-19 vaccination (Salazar & Barochiner, 2021; Papagiannis et al. 2021; Qunaibi et al. 2021). While other segments of the population, like, younger individuals, women, rural residents and those belonging to low income laborer classes are more on the negative attitudes side (Danabal et al. 2021).
Factors influencing positive attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination are mainly inherent to personal convictions on the benefits of the vaccine, like the individual protection, the protection of the family and those around the person against health consequences of covid-19 (results in Table 2). This was confirmed by similar studies (Danayiyen et al. 2021; Kabamba et al. 2020; Paudel et al. 2021). Mandatory measures from the government to get the vaccine (vaccine pass / freedom of travel), seems to be among the factors leading to positive attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination in the present study and in a number of studies (Padureanu, 2020; Salazar et al. 2020; Szmyd et al. 2021; Qattan et al. 2021).
In contrast, the main factors driving in favor of negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination, in the present study (more than 65%); can be classified under “the naive explanation of COVID-19 pandemic” category, which rely on traditional medicine and natural immunity. This type of attitudes is present in many studies, under similar terms, like: unawareness, possible adverse effects of the vaccine (Khan et al. 2021), high mistrust in vaccines (Fusick et al. 2021) and preference for natural immunity (Danabal et al. 2021), and among some socio-demographic groups, particularly younger individuals, women, and people who were less educated, had lower income, and living in a rural area (Cascinia et al. 2021; Danabal et al. 2021; Holeva et al. 2021).
The second category of respondents (26.35%) can be classified under one heading called the “Mistrust towards official authorities” which includes health authorities, healthcare professionals and official modern science practices. Different forms of mistrust in vaccine during Covid-19 pandemic are reported in many studies, worries about the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccine (Mohammad et al. 2021; Meda-Lara et al. 2022). Concerns about the vaccine development process, vaccine distrust, peers groups with negative vaccine intentions were behind negative attitudes (Schneider et al., 2021). Mistrust in research and in vaccines, which requires fostering a climate of respectful mutual trust between science and society, as has been expressed by Palamenghi et al. (2020).
Results of the present study questions the relation between official scientific institutions and the society. To earn public trust, government and scientific institutions should reexamine their own practices with respect to earning and maintaining public trust, as has been rightly advocated by Goldenberg (2016), rather than explaining vaccine hesitancy as a matter of ignorance and misunderstanding of science by the public.
Ultimately, it is indicated who actually receives the vaccination. The Algerian Ministry of Health indicates that the number of people who have received the vaccination so far is still small. This result draws us to the issue of the relationship between attitude and behavior.
Despite the fact that attitudes can affect behavior, for example, they can push the individual to engage in many activities such as driving, working, building friendships, participating in events...etc. they however, do not always influence behavior. Studies show that attitudes often point to one thing and behavior to another (Fazio 1990; Bamberg 2006). The most prominent example of this is the attitudes towards smoking. Smokers may have negative attitudes towards smoking, but they do smoke.
As early as 1934, LaPiere concluded that attitude does not affect behavior (LaPiere 1934). His study encouraged researchers to take a new interest in the issue of the relationship between attitudes and behavior. Wicker (1969) showed that the relationship between the two variables is complex and is affected by at least five factors: measurement issues, perception of behavioral control, attitude formation, cognitive processing and situational factors (Wicker 1969).
Can an attitude predict behavior? Yes, it can, but taking into account the following:
Can the behavior affect the attitude? Yes, some examples are:
-
Foot in the door phenomenon (Gamian-Wilk, & Dolinski, 2020).
-
Role-play (Latiff, Othman, & Ismail 2018).
-
Cognitive dissonance (Harmon-Jones, 2019).