Why Paying People to Be Vaccinated Could Backfire

In one of the studies, a professor asked his students whether they would attend a reading of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” offering half of the students payment for attending the reading, while asking the other half if they would pay to attend. Those offered payment wound up reporting less interest in attending. For those unsure about being vaccinated, like those unsure about attending the poetry reading, paying will most likely send the message that this is something you would not want to do without compensation.

People are also likely to infer from payment that the vaccine could be risky. In our research with Kevin Volpp and Alex London, we found that people naturally assume that payments signal risk. In a series of experiments, we described clinical trials that offered different payment amounts for participating in a study that involved an unfamiliar testing procedure. We found that people believed that a study’s riskiness was greater when the payment was higher, even though the descriptions of the study procedures were otherwise identical. Paying people to be vaccinated might, similarly, lead them to infer that it is riskier than they would otherwise assume.

Data thus far suggest that the early Covid-19 vaccine candidates from Pfizer and Moderna are safe and effective — evidence that has already led to emergency approval of the Pfizer candidate. Although direct payments for vaccination might increase uptake for some people in the short term, the effects just described might ultimately lead to exactly the opposite of the intended effects, especially for those uncertain about whether the risks of vaccination exceed the benefits.

In addition to making the vaccine seem riskier, payments might also make people less likely to get vaccinated for the selfless goal of helping others. Research shows that paying people to take altruistic actions often backfires. In one study, Israeli high school students who collected for charity on a particular day of the year collected less money when they were paid a small commission.

The paper reporting the study, titled “Pay Enough or Don’t Pay at All,” argued that the amount paid was too little to motivate the students, but enough to raise questions about the motives of students who collected a lot of money, both in the minds of people observing those students, and possibly even on the part of student collectors themselves. That same logic would suggest that paying people to get vaccinated could diminish the motivation of those who are altruistically motivated, or who would like to appear so.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/upshot/covid-vaccine-payment.html