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The cause of the irrational behavior is the idea that one is more qualified than medical researchers in every developed country after reading a few websites about vaccine “effects”. To me, that is to satisfy one’s ego. An educated person knows where the limits of their knowledge is, and becoming a parent does not endow you with the ability to analyze vaccine efficacy, or any other subject matter.

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For some parents it may be ego or hubris, for others irrational fear, and in many cases it may be driven by the consensus of a social group that someone identifies with.

The fact that individuals are making decision contrary to available evidence and data may be hard to accept (esp. for the HN community) but it happens all the time.

In order to convince people to change their behavior, appealing to the emotional and pro-social drivers may be more effective than providing better rational arguments.

To be clear: I am not endorsing people making obviously bad decisions, it drives me crazy, and I am 100% pro vaccines.

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