Social Media’s Role in How Teen Boys View HPV Vaccines

Shot of young smiling man taking selfie after receiving vaccine. black male in an orange short sleeve button down shows his shoulder with bandaid.

Problem

Social media may shape how adolescent males view the HPV vaccine, yet that influence remains largely unexamined.

HPV vaccination protects against several cancers, but uptake among adolescent males in the United States has been slow. These adolescents take an active role in their own health decisions, and social media is a constant presence in their lives. Yet how the messages they encounter online affect their views on the HPV vaccine has not been widely studied.

Merck commissioned NORC to examine how social media narratives influence what adolescent males ages 14–17 know and believe about the HPV vaccine, and if those narratives affect their confidence in getting vaccinated.

Solution

NORC recruited a national sample of teen boys and explored how they responded to HPV vaccine messages on social media.

NORC partnered with Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) to conduct four focus groups and a set of in-depth interviews with HPV vaccinated and unvaccinated adolescent males ages 14-17. Participants came from AmeriSpeak Teen, a nationally representative panel of teens ages 13-17 enrolled with parental consent through NORC’s AmeriSpeak^® panel. We then worked with NORC’s Social Data Collaboratory to identify and analyze social media narratives about the HPV vaccine that these teens are likely to encounter.

Together, these approraches allowed our team to examine what adolescent males know about the HPV vaccine and whether they intend to get it, how platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, and Reddit figure in their thinking, and which messages they find believable.

Result

Our study found that social media narratives shaped adolescent males’ HPV vaccine knowledge and attitudes—but source credibility, not the platform, drove trust.

When exposed to different social media messages, adolescent males assessed trustworthiness primarily based on source credibility rather than the content or format. For example, messages from reputable sources like the Maryland Department of Health were considered trustworthy, while anecdotal posts, such as those with singing and dancing on TikTok, were often deemed less believable.

Trust varied by age and vaccination status: younger, unvaccinated males ages 14–15 were more swayed by personal stories and less credible sources, whereas older, vaccinated adolescents ages 16–17 leaned on parents, personal doctors, and health websites for reliable information. Barriers to vaccination included concerns about side effects and a perceived lack of need due to sexual inactivity, while mothers often acted as catalysts for vaccine uptake.

These patterns suggest that for adolescent males, credibility rests with the messenger more than the medium. The findings give health communicators and clinicians a clearer basis for reaching this group and offer researchers a foundation for testing which trusted messengers most effectively shift vaccine attitudes.