Resolving the small-pockets problem helps clarify the role of education and political ideology in shaping vaccine scepticism

Understanding the factors associated with vaccine skepticism is challenging because of the “small pockets” problem: the number of highly vaccine-skeptical people is low, and small sub-samples such as these can be missed using traditional regression approaches. To overcome this problem, the current study (N=5200) used latent profile analysis to uncover six profiles, including two micro-communities of vaccine skeptical people that have the potential to jeopardise vaccine-led herd immunity. The most vaccine-skeptical group (1.14%) was highly educated and expressed strong liberal tendencies. This group were also the most skeptical about genetically modified crops and nuclear energy, and most likely to receive news about science from the internet. The second-most vaccine-skeptical group (3.4%) was young, poorly educated, and politically extreme (both left and right). In resolving the small pockets problem, the current analyses also help reconcile competing theoretical perspectives about the role of education and political ideology in shaping anti-vaccination views.