Do education and news consumption prompt Africans to put more trust in the COVID-19 vaccine than in prayer?

Using Afrobarometer survey data covering 15 African countries, this study examines the impact of educational attainment and news consumption on Africans' beliefs regarding whether prayer is more effective than a vaccine in preventing COVID-19.

Regression results show that education reduces individuals' likelihood of believing that prayer is more effective than a vaccine in preventing the disease. This might be because education encourages critical thinking, prompting people to believe more in science, which is evidence-based, rather than in prayer, which is based on supernatural beliefs. Likewise, news consumption reduces individuals' likelihood of believing that prayer is more effective than a vaccine. This might be because most of the news that Africans encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic emphasised the severity of the disease and encouraged vaccination. Regression results also show that, compared to non-religious individuals, Christians and Muslims were more likely to believe that prayer is more effective than a vaccine, while those practicing ethnic/traditional religion were less likely to hold such beliefs.

Daniel Tuki Daniel Tuki is a research fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany.