The Empathetic Refutational Interview to tackle vaccine misconceptions and improve vaccine acceptance

We introduce and test the effectiveness of a novel, multi-component intervention that can be used by health care professionals to refute anti-vaccination arguments while remaining empathetic to people's motivations for holding misinformed beliefs: the "Empathetic Refutational Interview" (ERI). The ERI follows four steps to tailor one's response to a vaccine-hesitant individual: (1) elicit their concerns, (2) affirm their values and beliefs to the extent possible, (3) refute misinformed beliefs in a way that is tailored to their psychological motivations, and (4) provide factual vaccine information. In four experiments with participants who were predominantly negative or neutral about vaccination (total n = 2,545), we found that including at least one ERI step increased vaccine acceptance and lowered endorsement of anti-vaccination arguments more than a control without any of the steps. Critically, participants were more receptive to steps 2 and 3 of the ERI than to control conditions without these steps.