New study finds Trump's tweets intensify anti-vaccine attitudes among his supporters

[Judi Lynn]

BY ERIC W. DOLAN APRIL 3, 2020

New research has found that Americans who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 are particularly prone to anti-vaccination attitudes and that these attitudes can be exacerbated by the president’s tweets. The findings have been published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

“I’m generally interested in anti-vaccination beliefs because they have the potential to do so much damage. When Trump was elected it also struck me as a curious moment in history, because he was the first U.S. president in modern history to be on the record with anti-vaxx views,” explained study author Matthew J. Hornsey, a professor at the University of Queensland Business School.

Trump had sent dozens of tweets linking vaccinations with autism, such as one in 2014 that read: “Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn’t feel good and changes – AUTISM. Many such cases!”

Hornsey remarked that Trump is “the most conspiracy-minded president in modern history. It was natural to wonder, then, whether Trump supporters were more anti-vaxx than other Americans, and whether Trump’s tweets had the potential to still do damage.”

More:
https://www.psypost.org/2020/04/new-study-finds-trumps-tweets-intensify-anti-vaccine-attitudes-among-his-supporters-56359

[modrepub]

1. Same People Who Believe The Malaria Drugs Work

based on some doctor saying he tested 40 people to show it worked. If the death rate is 1-2% you'd have just as much chance of a placebo showing the same "success" rate. (Bonus if you can figure out how many people to test to show a statistically significant trend). Math/statistics just ain't their forte.

[BeckyDem]

2. This is terrible, especially now. omg

Trump is a national security threat.

[CaptYossarian]

3. My family will be the last surviving ones on our block--based on yard signs.

And we won't be able to attend the funerals.