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Anti-vax: What changes minds when it comes to vaccine hesitancy?
When Christine Vigeant was pregnant with her daughter she had an idea of the kind of mother she wanted to be. She practiced attachment parenting with anti-vaccine beliefs.
For many parents, she said, fear of the unknown outweighs fear of diseases they've never seen in their lifetimes.
How not to talk to an anti-vaxxer
Vigeant said when people tried to counter her beliefs with facts, it only made her more resolute. When you encounter facts that don’t support your idea, your belief in that idea actually grows stronger.
Vigeant was able to effectively use the Internet to find information that supported the beliefs she already held.
Vigeant says her beliefs about vaccines changed slowly. The seed was planted when a friend posted on Facebook that she had just vaccinated her kids. Like Vigeant, she also practiced attachment parenting.
The post read, “I just had my children injected with toxins at the doctor’s office, but it’s okay, I gave them an organic lollipop afterwards.”
Vigeant said she watched as her friend gracefully chatted on Facebook with those fearful of vaccines, gently debunking myths, and always empathizing.
"Having someone from my own circle who believed in the same things I did questioning the dogma of not vaccinating was really helpful," she said.
Advice from a pediatrician
Vigeant took two classes which changed her thinking. One was Critical Thinking and the other was Science and Pseudoscience, both taught by the same professor.
"He asked people not just to think about why they believe what they believe, but to ask yourself instead how could what you believe be false?"
That's when Vigeant said she began to seek information outside of her core group. She began to talk openly with her pediatrician about her concerns and over time she saw the risks of vaccinating did not outweigh the risk of contracting a contagious disease. Today her daughter and son are fully vaccinated.
When Christine Vigeant was pregnant with her daughter she had an idea of the kind of mother she wanted to be. She practiced attachment parenting with anti-vaccine beliefs.
For many parents, she said, fear of the unknown outweighs fear of diseases they've never seen in their lifetimes.
How not to talk to an anti-vaxxer
Vigeant said when people tried to counter her beliefs with facts, it only made her more resolute. When you encounter facts that don’t support your idea, your belief in that idea actually grows stronger.
Vigeant was able to effectively use the Internet to find information that supported the beliefs she already held.
Vigeant says her beliefs about vaccines changed slowly. The seed was planted when a friend posted on Facebook that she had just vaccinated her kids. Like Vigeant, she also practiced attachment parenting.
The post read, “I just had my children injected with toxins at the doctor’s office, but it’s okay, I gave them an organic lollipop afterwards.”
Vigeant said she watched as her friend gracefully chatted on Facebook with those fearful of vaccines, gently debunking myths, and always empathizing.
"Having someone from my own circle who believed in the same things I did questioning the dogma of not vaccinating was really helpful," she said.
Advice from a pediatrician
Vigeant took two classes which changed her thinking. One was Critical Thinking and the other was Science and Pseudoscience, both taught by the same professor.
"He asked people not just to think about why they believe what they believe, but to ask yourself instead how could what you believe be false?"
That's when Vigeant said she began to seek information outside of her core group. She began to talk openly with her pediatrician about her concerns and over time she saw the risks of vaccinating did not outweigh the risk of contracting a contagious disease. Today her daughter and son are fully vaccinated.
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