# Analysis of the influence of political polarization in the vaccination stance: the Brazilian COVID-19 scenario

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.03382 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.03382/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 7 Oct 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Using Twitter Data to Understand Public Perceptions of Approved versus Off-label Use for COVID-19-related Medications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.14358/) (2022)
- [Media Bias Matters: Understanding the Impact of Politically Biased News on Vaccine Attitudes in Social Media](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.04009/) (2024)
- [Same Words, Different Meanings: Semantic Polarization in Broadcast Media Language Forecasts Polarization on Social Media Discourse](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.08832/) (2023)
- [Exploring the evolution of research topics during the COVID-19 pandemic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03928/) (2023)
- [Capturing research literature attitude towards Sustainable Development Goals: an LLM-based topic modeling approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.02943/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The outbreak of COVID-19 had a huge global impact, and non-scientific beliefs and political polarization have significantly influenced the population's behavior. In this context, COVID vaccines were made available in an unprecedented time, but a high level of hesitance has been observed that can undermine community immunization. Traditionally, anti-vaccination attitudes are more related to conspiratorial thinking rather than political bias. In Brazil, a country with an exemplar tradition in large-scale vaccination programs, all COVID-related topics have also been discussed under a strong political bias. In this paper, we use a multidimensional analysis framework to understand if anti/pro-vaccination stances expressed by Brazilians in social media are influenced by political polarization. The analysis framework incorporates techniques to automatically infer from users their political orientation, topic modeling to discover their concerns, network analysis to characterize their social behavior, and the characterization of information sources and external influence. Our main findings confirm that anti/pro stances are biased by political polarization, right and left, respectively. While a significant proportion of pro-vaxxers display haste for an immunization program and criticize the government's actions, the anti-vaxxers distrust a vaccine developed in a record time. Anti-vaccination stance is also related to prejudice against China (anti-sinovaxxers), revealing conspiratorial theories related to communism. All groups display an "echo chamber behavior, revealing they are not open to distinct views.