Anti-vaxxers linked to conspiracy theorists

Anti-vaxxers have similar beliefs around being persecuted as conspiracy theorists and their networks are immune to outside influences, new Australian research suggests.

A big data study just published by Australian National University (ANU) and Federation University analysed almost 300,000 text comments from around 14,700 individual posts on six anti-vaccination Facebook pages from Australia and North America.

“When we analysed what individuals said in these comments, we identified similar topics to conspiracy theorists,” said Dr Tim Graham, a postdoctoral research fellow at ANU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science and the ANU School of Sociology.

“They believe the government and the media underplay, deny ... perceived harms caused by vaccinations.”

The research also found the antivaccination movement might be less close-knit than previously assumed.

“Most users of the pages we studied appeared to be transient; they came on, commented on a few posts and then you never see them again.

“Interestingly, there was also a significant gender skew,” Graham said. “Three-quarters of those involved in the anti-vaccination Facebook pages were women. This is reflective of vaccination still being perceived as ‘a mother’s question’.”

The research, funded through a seed grant provided by Federation University, comes amid concerns from some health professionals that anti-vaccination sentiment is on the rise in New Zealand.