Despite mountains of evidence supporting their effectiveness, vaccine skepticism has moved from the fringes of the internet to the leadership of the nation’s health care agencies.
In addition to those who are choosing not to have their children immunized, each year, millions of adults choose not to get available vaccines to protect themselves from diseases, including influenza and COVID-19.
Psychology majors Isabel Gottlieb-Nemo ’25 and Yoyo Zhao ’25 worked with Associate Professor of Psychology Laurel Peterson to try to answer why.
Zhao researched men between the ages of 18 and 25, their views on traditional masculinity, and how that affected their decision to get the influenza vaccination. Gottlieb-Nemo reviewed data from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic to explore reasons why young men did or did not choose to vaccinate.
Zhao and Gottlieb-Nemo’s research projects started when they took the lab class Pandemic Decision Making with Peterson in fall 2023. In that class, they learned how to use SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software and the basics of coding. They also researched COVID-19 vaccination rates among men and their views on masculinity.
“The lab classes are half a unit, and the entire class is students doing a mini scientific project from beginning to end,” explains Peterson. “I provided various data sets for them to look at, but then they review the literature to develop their own hypothesis, go into the data, analyze, and report their findings.”
The students relished the opportunity to explore how gender socialization influences health decisions and wanted to dive deeper into the topic. In their senior year, they chose to pursue yearlong thesis projects with Peterson.
“It was super helpful for me, because I had had all this experience reading studies and learning about statistics, but I hadn't had a real opportunity to take a data set and from start to finish, clean it, analyze it, and write a report on it,” says Gottlieb-Nemo.
“The lab class showed me that I could successfully do a thesis project and that I wanted to do it with Professor Peterson,” adds Zhao.
Both students spent the first semester of their senior year doing a literature review to determine the topic of their thesis project and their hypothesis. They discovered novel findings surrounding men’s gender beliefs and vaccination decisions.
Zhao found that men’s rejection of traditional masculinity, belief that other men were getting vaccinated, and encouragement from others contributed to their decisions to get the seasonal flu vaccine. Looking at a historical pandemic, Gottlieb-Nemo found that men’s belief that other men were getting vaccinated, and a positive image of the typical male vaccinator, contributed to their decisions to get vaccinated for H1N1. Together, their research adds to a growing body of work that helps to inform public health campaigns promoting men’s vaccination uptake.
This fall, Zhao will be finishing a 4+1 program at Penn and getting her master’s degree in computer science. Through the program, she was able to be a first-year master’s student at Penn while finishing her senior year.
Gottlieb-Nemo minored in Spanish and is going to Chile this summer to work on her fluency. She previously visited Chile during the summer of 2024 to work with a non-profit health organization. When she returns to the U.S., she plans to pursue a master's in social work.