Are you Team Pfizer or Team Modern? According to the Internet, this is the biggest personal identity game from Team Edward vs. Team Jacob, and it all depends on the vaccine you have.
The unscientific masses seem to believe that Pfizer’s “girls” are superior. Modern “girls”, not so much. And if you’re Johnson and Johnson, or we’d dare say, Astra-Zeneca, we’re sorry to inform you, but you’re not even in the race. (But our science writer has good news for the ignored crowd of J&J!)
Of course, all of this is a lot of fun. Experts such as Dr. Fauci have stated that the best vaccine that can be obtained is the one that can be obtained first, as long as they are the doses if the vaccine requires two vaccines. Each vaccine has been rigorously tested and has been shown to have a high percentage of effectiveness in protecting against serious illness and death from the virus, which is desperately needed.
The coronavirus pandemic has already killed more than 500,000 Americans so far, and community immunity through vaccination is the best way to save lives and return to normalcy, whatever the future.
That said, there’s a reason potential college students go to the top college rankings each year and why millennials still argue that their respective (and fantastic) Harry Potter Hogwarts home is the best.
People have an obsession with belonging, status, and freshness, so it was only a matter of time before those impulses took over the vaccinated masses. Despite the pandemic, we will always find a way to be part of one group that is better than another.
The people on Twitter have made it very clear. They share memes comparing Pfizer vaccine receivers with Modern ones, and can be warmed up in the comment threads.
Dr. Donelson R. Forsyth, a social and personality psychologist who teaches at the University of Richmond, told The Daily Beast that this behavior is based on typical human behavior known as the “theory of social categorization.”
“Very naturally, we put everyone we know into psychologically constructed categories, and that includes ourselves. In the classic studies of this trend, researchers took people to a room and divided them into two groups, totally random, “he explained in an email.” Immediately, people would begin to identify with their own group and see people from the other group negatively. Even without ever talking to each other, people assume that they are part of the “good group” and that there is something wrong with the people in the other group. “
“We’re so quick to think we’re‘ us against them ’that we use any difference between us to create divisions: Baylor vs. Gonzaga, Morning People vs. Night Owls, Chevy drivers vs. Ford drivers, Moderna vs. Pfizer (I won’t even mention J & Js looking for emotions), ”he added.
But getting a vaccine is not just a symbol of kind status (or not). It is literally life or death. You’d think that having enough shots to do it so that everyone who needs it or wants one can get one would stick to our exclusive nature, but a Notre Dame document titled The psychology of competition: a perspective of social comparison suggests that having fewer options really increases division.
According to the authors, “comparison concerns intensify and competitiveness increases as the number of competitors decreases, even when the overall expected reward is controlled.” In other words, the fewer competitors, like only four types of vaccines, the more people feel the need to be the best, which explains the Pfizer Diana meme against the Modern Camilla. (Although Modern people ask for differences.)
In some tweets, people have wondered if they are even compatible with their other significant friends or acquaintances? Just as novice astrologers would ask if an Aries could match in harmony with a Libra, people now wonder if a Pfizer girl could date a modern boy. (Spoiler: It doesn’t matter, as long as both people are stunned).
Whether someone is a fan of J&J or a modern day woman, after all, we share a common goal: to slow down the spread of COVID as if life depended on it. Because currently yes.