Research

Research

In its research and teaching, the Department of Government primarily focuses on comparative and Austrian politics. Its research is concerned with political behaviour, political actors, such as political parties and politicians, political institutions, the processes governed by these institutions, as well as their outcomes. It includes work on political participation, voting behaviour, parties and party competition, coalition politics and Austrian politics in general and is mostly based on rationalist and behavioural approaches.

Our goal is to conduct high-level, internationally competitive research in the area of Comparative Politics with the collaboration of international project partners and research networks. At the Faculty of Social Sciences the department is mainly engaged in the key research area ''Political Competition and Communication: Democratic Representation in Changing Societies'.

The department’s approach places it in the discipline’s empirical-analytical core and is mostly based on quantitative social science methods. To map empirical phenomena accurately, researcher in the department focus on the continuous development of survey design, as well as on the analysis of empirical data by applying the best suited statistical model. The department aims to achieve the best work on Austrian politics and to make important contributions to the international academic literature on Comparative Government and Politics.

An overview of current publications and activities at the department can be found below and on the personal websites of our team.

Publications

Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine fatigue

Author(s)
Tanja Stamm, Julia Partheymüller, Erika Mosor, Sylvia Kritzinger, Valentin Ritschl, Alessia Alunno, Jakob-Moritz Eberl
Abstract

There is growing concern that Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine fatigue will be a major obstacle in maintaining immunity in the general population. In this study, we assessed vaccine acceptance in future scenarios in two conjoint experiments, investigating determinants such as new vaccines, communication, costs/incentives and legal rules. The experiments were embedded in an online survey (n = 6,357 participants) conducted in two European countries (Austria and Italy). Our results suggest that vaccination campaigns should be tailored to subgroups based on their vaccination status. Among the unvaccinated, campaign messages conveying community spirit had a positive effect (0.343, confidence interval (CI) 0.019–0.666), whereas offering positive incentives, such as a cash reward (0.722, CI 0.429–1.014) or voucher (0.670, CI 0.373–0.967), was pivotal to the decision-making of those vaccinated once or twice. Among the triple vaccinated, vaccination readiness increased when adapted vaccines were offered (0.279, CI 0.182–0.377), but costs (−0.795, CI −0.935 to −0.654) and medical dissensus (−0.161, CI −0.293 to −0.030) reduced their likelihood to get vaccinated. We conclude that failing to mobilize the triple vaccinated is likely to result in booster vaccination rates falling short of expectations. For long-term success, measures fostering institutional trust should be considered. These results provide guidance to those responsible for future COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.

Organisation(s)
Department of Government, Department of Communication
External organisation(s)
Università degli Studi di Perugia, Medizinische Universität Wien, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute
Journal
Nature Medicine
Volume
29
Pages
1164-1171
No. of pages
8
ISSN
1078-8956
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02282-y
Publication date
2023
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
504007 Empirical social research, 303011 Health policy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/c55e3261-1865-42f1-ae6f-78fbf9ac4420