“God is my refuge”: Do education and news consumption prompt Africans to put more trust in the COVID-19 vaccine than in prayer?
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Taylor and Francis
Abstract
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, extensive research has been conducted on people’s attitudes toward vaccines in Africa and other parts of the world. However, there remains a notable lack of studies exploring perceptions of a vaccine’s effectiveness compared to prayer in preventing COVID-19. Using large-N survey data from 15 African countries (n = 18,909), this study investigates how educational attainment and news consumption relates to Africans’ beliefs about whether a vaccine is more effective than prayer in preventing COVID-19. The descriptive analysis shows that 61% of Africans believe prayer is more effective than a vaccine in preventing COVID-19. Regression analysis reveals that education reduces individuals’ likelihood of believing prayer is more effective than vaccination. This might be because education promotes critical thinking and encourages trust in science, which is grounded in evidence, as opposed to prayer, which is rooted in supernatural beliefs. Likewise, news consumption reduces individuals’ beliefs in the superiority of prayer over vaccines, likely due to the widespread media coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic that highlighted the seriousness of the disease and encouraged vaccination. The analysis also shows that, compared to non-religious individuals, Christians and Muslims are more likely to believe in the effectiveness of prayer over vaccines, while those practicing ethnic/traditional religion are less inclined to hold such beliefs.
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution 4.0 International