ABSTRACT

Although vaccines have been recognized as the most powerful tool of modern medicine, especially in the promotion of public health, they have also created opponents since the first vaccine was introduced. Nowadays, it is seen that negative perceptions and attitudes towards vaccines are becoming increasingly widespread and this situation poses a significant risk for most medical actors. The study focuses on data from a qualitative study conducted in Istanbul in 2023 to explore the reasons for these negative attitudes, focusing on the emotions that shape and nurture these perceptions and attitudes. In the study, semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with thirty participants who admitted that they had negative perceptions and attitudes towards all or some of the vaccines, in accordance with the aims of the research. The aforementioned research generally aimed to understand the factors that feed people's opposition/hesitation/abstention towards vaccines, but when analyzing the data, it was understood that emotions play an important role in this sense. Thus, this article has centered on the emotions underlying the anti-vaccination phenomenon. Emotions form a part of all kinds of social relationships and experiences and play an important role in shaping attitudes thanks to their power to influence and be influenced. Likewise, it is one of the factors that determine people's thoughts and attitudes about vaccination, and it also causes them to spread to others through contamination. The study looks at feelings about both childhood and Covid-19 vaccines, thus arguing that anti-vaccine attitudes can vary according to circumstances, time, and context. In addition, the study aims to contribute to the field by showing that anti-vaccination cannot be explained simply by concepts such as ignorance and unscientific.