Date of Award
9-27-2023
Publication Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Philosophy
Keywords
argumentation;ethos;rhetoric;trust;vaccine hesitancy
Supervisor
Christopher Tindale
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
There is no shortage of research implicating trust as a central concern for addressing vaccine hesitancy, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, healthcare professionals have long called for increased resources and training to address the issue. However, despite this long-standing problem, and its recent foray into the social consciousness, there is still a significant lack of resources for resolving this issue. This thesis aims to address this deficit. I offer a practical framework for healthcare practitioners, public health officials, and vaccine manufacturers for managing both trust and its related, but distinct, counterpart: distrust. This framework involves demonstrating (rather than arguing for) trustworthiness through three factors long cited in the interdisciplinary literature concerning trust: ability, benevolence, and integrity. After situating myself regarding the issue, highlighting why I am drawn to the topic and its continued importance, I develop this framework across four chapters. Firstly, I review the literature that connects this issue to trust, and related philosophical theory concerning this concept. Secondly, I offer a cross-disciplinary examination of trust and what it involves, separating it from various concepts to show how it is related yet distinct from distrust. Thirdly, I take these observations as grounds for a framework for managing trust and distrust in interpersonal relationships. Lastly, I synthesize these chapters to offer a practical approach to tackling vaccine hesitancy regarding trust and distrust rather than merely the former.
Recommended Citation
Kinnish, Nicholas, "Beyond Argument? Addressing the Matter of Trust in Vaccine Hesitancy" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 9246.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/9246