A continuous time meta-analysis of the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and individual preventive behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

In several longitudinal studies, reduced willingness to show COVID-19-related preventive behavior (e.g., wearing masks, social distancing) has been partially attributed to misinformation and conspiracy beliefs. However, there is considerable uncertainty with respect to the strength of the relationship and whether the negative relationship exists in both directions (reciprocal effects). One explanation of the heterogeneity pertains to the fact that the time interval between consecutive measurement occasions varies (e.g., 1 month, 3 months) both between and within studies. Therefore, a continuous time meta-analysis based on longitudinal studies was conducted. This approach enables one to examine how the strength of the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and COVID-19 preventive behavior depends on the time interval. In total, 1035 correlations were coded for 17 samples (N = 16,350). The results for both the full set of studies and a subset consisting of 13 studies corroborated the existence of reciprocal effects. Furthermore, there was some evidence of publication bias. The largest cross-lagged effects were observed between 3 and 6 months, which can inform decision-makers and researchers when carrying out interventions or designing studies examining the consequences of new conspiracy theories.

Stability of network models linking personality to conspiracy mentality before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In addition, it is worth considering that the strength of the relationship between the examined personality constructs and conspiracy mentality may increase both for the aggregate scores and the network analysis if there is a considerable time lag between assessing conspiracy beliefs and their correlates. Such a tendency was identified in a meta-analysis examining the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and COVID-19-related preventive behavior (Stasielowicz, 2022a). Specifically, the strongest relationship was estimated for time lags of three to six months.…”

“…It is plausible that personality acts both as a cause and an outcome. To examine whether reciprocal effects exist between personality and conspiracy mentality, one could conduct longitudinal studies and account for variables identified as relevant predictors of conspiracy beliefs in previous studies (Hornsey et al, 2022;Stasielowicz, 2022a).…”

Resilience and Spirituality as Moderators between Several Concerns and Psychological Distress during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Conspiracy theories are defined as causal theories that attribute events to the intentional activities of certain groups 130 . Evidence showed that belief in conspiracy theories is negatively associated with compliance to governmental rules during the pandemic [131][132][133] and the intentions to get the anti-COVID-19 vaccine [134][135][136][137] .…”

The persuasive effects of social cues and source effects on misinformation susceptibility

“…Although social networking sites were initially created to facilitate interpersonal communication and social interactions between users, these platforms have also become one of the main facilitators of misinformation 1 – 4 . Unfortunately, as countless studies and reports have documented, misinformation can have dire consequences for the political and social wellbeing of societies around the globe 5 – 8 . While researchers studying misinformation have made insightful contributions to our understanding of who is most susceptible to misinformation 9 – 11 , seminal papers have made conclusions about what makes people susceptible by studying misinformation mostly in a social vacuum, when in reality, individuals often consume news in social settings.…”