Vaccine Hesitancy and Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 Misinformation in Japanese Youth: The Contribution of Personality Traits and National Identity

During the pandemic, the Japanese government drew upon the cultural concept of jishuku, or personal self-constraint, requesting that individuals accept responsibility for their behaviors and consider minimizing the potential negative impact on others. While the jishuku approach to pandemic management rests upon the established and persuasive influence of cultural norms, variability in adherence can be expected according to age. This article documents an investigation into factors impacting vaccine hesitancy and susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 misinformation among Japanese youth. The point of departure is the belief that attitudes and behaviors, such as those underpinning the jishuku approach to pandemic management, arise from within a relational framework. Therefore, developmental characteristics, such as personality traits, and in-group affinity attachments, such as facets of national identity, can be expected to function as predictors of health attitudes and behaviors. The tested structural model of hypothesized interactions accounted for 14% of the observed variance in vaccine hesitancy and 20% in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 misinformation. With the inclusion of gender, political ideology, and trust in government SARS-CoV-2 response as control variables, the respecified model increased the amount of variance observed in vaccine hesitancy to 30% and to 25% in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 misinformation. The outcomes are discussed in relation to the communication of coherent public health discourse relative to personality traits and facets of national identity.

The role of personality traits and online academic self-efficacy in acceptance, actual use and achievement in Moodle

Informed by the educational conditions shaped by the novel coronavirus pandemic and an increased reliance upon online learning solutions and technologies, this article examines the role of personality traits and online academic self-efficacy in acceptance, actual use and achievement in Moodle on a socially distanced asynchronous university course in Japan. With a sample of 149 students the study adopts SEM path-analysis model testing procedures and shows that agreeableness and conscientious have positive direct effects on online academic self-efficacy in addition to positive indirect effects on the acceptance of Moodle. Moreover agreeableness and conscientious had an indirect effect on course achievement while none of the five-factor model personality traits had an influence on actual Moodle use. An improved respecified model further affirmed the importance of agreeableness and conscientious and their role in online academic self-efficacy, the acceptance and actual use of Moodle and course achievement outcomes. Fourteen percent of the observed variance in course achievement was explainable through the respecified model. The discussion highlights the implications to be drawn from the data in relation to the current educational landscape from the perspective of the educator.