ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the many representations surrounding vaccination using Rouquette’s concept of “social thought”, dovetailing three concepts: social representations, rumours, and conspiracy theories. The concept of social representation, developed to describe the appropriation of scientific concepts by common sense, has proved particularly valuable in this respect. The chapter considers the concepts of “anchoring” and “objectification” as applied to vaccination. A vaccine can often be viewed objectification of social relationships: what the syringe injects is not just a biological substance, but something symbolic (“indoctrination”, “submission” or, on the contrary, “responsibility”, “cooperation”, etc.). The authors highlight the many anchoring in which representations of a vaccines can take place (colonialism, war, finance, the opposition between technology and nature …) and emphasize the concept of “healthism”. The chapter then addresses vaccine rumours and conditions that facilitate their transmission. The third part of the chapter considers the large body of work surrounding vaccine conspiracies: indeed, the topic of vaccine safety has been one of the most fertile grounds of conspiracist thinking. While conspiracy beliefs can promote anti-vaccination attitudes, it is also suggested that conspiracy beliefs can serve as a form of rationalization for refusing to vaccinate. In the last part of the chapter, the motivations (epistemic, existential and social) underlying adhesion to these three manifestations of social thought are considered.
