Heuristics in vaccination Decision-Making for newly developed Vaccines: Understanding the public's imitative behavior

This study aims to investigate the extent to which the public engages in imitative behavior in their vaccination decisions for newly developed vaccines in the Chinese context. Given the crucial role of newly developed vaccines in preventing and controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, a better understanding of how people make decisions about vaccination with new vaccines is important for overcoming vaccine hesitation and promoting widespread adoption of the vaccines. Our results indicate that the public's decision-making about the newly developed vaccine is influenced by a range of heuristics, including a privileged information heuristic, competence heuristic, and consensus heuristic. Specifically, individuals are more likely to imitate the vaccination behavior of those with privileged information, such as insiders, and those with perceived competence in the field, such as experts. Our findings also demonstrate the impact of majority influence, as the popularity of new vaccines leads to an increase in vaccination uptake through herd behavior. Our data highlights the importance of the first movers who are insiders with privileged information or experts with competence, as their behavior can significantly shape the vaccination decisions of others. Our study provides valuable insights into the complex interplay of heuristics and imitative behavior in vaccination decision-making for newly developed vaccines.