Date/Time
Date(s) - 22/01/2026
10:30 am - 11:30 am

Speaker: Azadeh Aghaeeyan (McMaster University)

Location: Hamilton Hall, Room 410 & Zoom
Zoom link: https://mcmaster.zoom.us/j/98308755554  (Passcode: MathBio)

Title: Vaccination Decisions: Revealing the Proportions of Decision-Making Types

Abstract: High vaccine uptake depends not only on access but also on how people decide whether to vaccinate. In this talk, I present a mechanistic framework that links vaccine uptake curves to heterogeneous decision-making. The model distinguishes (i) myopic rationalists, who vaccinate when it maximizes their immediate perceived payoff, and (ii) success-based learners, who imitate individuals they view as most successful. Fitting the model to COVID-19 vaccination uptake data, we estimate the proportions of these decision-making types across U.S. states. I then extend the model to allow variation in perceived payoff gains from vaccination and explore a key question: when can we uniquely recover group proportions and payoff parameters from vaccination time series?