Headshot because I got IRB approval two weeks ago 🙂

Author: Ramsay Ghaleb | Majors: Biology and Poltical Science

My name is Ramsey Ghaleb, and I am a Fulbright Honors undergraduate senior double majoring in Biology and Political Science. My thesis advisor, Dr. Geoboo Song, is an associate professor of political science and public policy, and I joined Dr. Song’s Policy Research Collaboratory in the Spring of 2020 and have enjoyed working with him since then.

In my thesis, I will focus on policy narrative research to battle against public rejection of vaccines. My idea is to explicate why “traditional” vaccine promotion campaigns have failed mainly due to “motivated reasoning” within the public, which is fueled by mistrust toward science and the government. In doing so, I will develop survey research that aims to understand the survey participants’ cognitive mechanism and related role of vaccine policy narratives in their cognitions. By combining Cultural Theory (CT) with the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), I will conduct a survey experiment that consists of a list of stimuli for the baseline control with three experimental treatments tailored to individualist, egalitarian, or hierarchical vaccine policy narratives.

In fact, I became motivated to combat vaccine hesitancy after completing my high school honors thesis entitled “Anti-intellectualism in American Life and the Threat Posed to our Democracy.” I quickly realized that vaccine hesitancy is a significant issue affecting public health. Through the spread of “fake news” along with the development of social media, vaccine hesitancy has been exacerbated in the past decade. While working at Arkansas Pediatric Facility during the pandemic, I was even more inspired to continue my research regarding vaccine hesitancy after hearing about two workers without the influenza vaccine infecting two immune-compromised children. They both died, and I felt compelled to conduct further research to combat the anti-vaxxer movement.

As discussed briefly, I am currently developing survey research targeting different cultural types and approaches to decrease vaccine hesitancy in the form of culturally nuanced vaccine narratives. I had never designed or conducted survey research before, and through assistance from Dr. Song, I have learned about the various research methods that are essential for successful implementation of my research plan. For example, I faced a significant challenge when I tried to obtain IRB (Institutional Review Board) approval for my planned survey research. The IRB ensures that research is conducted ethically while protecting human research subjects’ rights (e.g., survey participants’ privacy); I had no idea how much goes into creating a survey and getting the related IRB approval. Thankfully, new opportunities fell into my lap while I waited for the IRB approval, including merging my survey with another survey proposed by a political science undergraduate honors student in the Policy Research Collaboratory, Zoe Patrick. We can now reach a more significant number of participants by merging our surveys, which is essential considering the setbacks I faced in receiving IRB approval.

Ultimately, I see many implications from my research being applied nationally, as I will recommend policy changes to public health officials and politicians. Dr. Song has been a tremendous source of inspiration through the survey research methods that he developed to investigate the role of cultural narratives in shaping people’s climate change attitudes and policy preferences. With the great support I received from the Honors College, I plan to present my findings at multiple research conferences before matriculating into medical school!