The Little Jab Book: 18 behavioral science strategies for increasing vaccination uptake

Anamika Suresh and Dhwani Yagnaraman

the-little-jab-book

SECTOR

Health

PROJECT TYPE

Field Experiments

DOI

Location

Global South

BEHAVIORAL THEME

Sensitizing | Awareness
OVERVIEW

The Little Jab Book aims to provide inspiration and creative ideas for program managers, policymakers, and organizations involved in COVID-19 vaccine mobilization. Using case studies from historical efforts, it unpacks structural, behavioral and informational barriers to vaccination.

THEMATIC AREAS

Solutions from The Little Jab Book

Below are some of the ways The Little Jab book suggests increasing vaccination rates and addressing barriers to vaccination.

  1. Prompt specific plans: Send reminder emails with specific vaccination clinic details and ask individuals to write down the date and time of their appointment to increase vaccination rates.
  2. Use commitment devices and implementation intentions: Make commitments and create specific plans to help individuals follow through with their vaccination goals.
  3. Share individual stories: Personal stories of vaccinated individuals can be more compelling than sharing statistics, motivating people to get vaccinated.
  4. Involve the target population in creating solutions: Engage community members and leaders in  identifying barriers to vaccination and develop action plans as well.
  5. Set expectations around vaccination: Physicians and nurses should announce vaccination requirements during routine check-ups to help establish the belief that vaccination is important.
  6. Share what others are actually doing: Display a poster tracking the vaccinations of infants in the community to establish that it is normal and encourage others to conform.
  7. Pre-schedule appointments: Automatically schedule vaccination appointments as the default option but opt-out options should be available.
  8. Make the process hassle-free: Simplify the vaccination process through providing home vaccinations, and bundling vaccinations with health check-ups. This will encourage more people to get vaccinated, especially among senior citizens.