Bridging the Moral Divide Over Vaccinations

In early 2021, our research at the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) indicated that institutional distrust was central to both Covid-19 disinformation and anti-vaccine protests. Conspiracy theorists’ distrust of institutions was reinforced by politically tinged double standards in both censorship and public health restrictions, and was deepened by mass social media deplatforming. To make matters worse, when people have a sense that institutions don’t trust them, it is only natural for them to lose trust in those institutions — and when the government mandates vaccines, it tends to communicate a lack of trust in individuals. This creates an environment even more ripe for conspiracy theories. Read Full Article »