Anti‐Vaccination Beliefs and Unrelated Conspiracy Theories

Abstract

Much recent literature has examined the correlates of anti-vaccination beliefs, without specifying the mechanism that creates adherence to these debunked ideas. We posit that anti-vaccination beliefs are an outcome of a general psychological propensity to believe in conspiracies based on new research on the interconnectedness of conspiracy beliefs. These ideas are tested with a confirmatory factor analysis and a seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model of a nationally representative U.S. sample from the 2016 American National Election Studies. The confirmatory factor analysis shows that anti-vaccination beliefs highly correlate with belief in the unrelated conspiracies that Obama is a Muslim and 9/11 trutherism. Our SUR models also show that all three of these very different beliefs have similar predictors. All three have a negative correlation with political trust, political knowledge, education, and a positive correlation with authoritarianism. Thus, anti-vaccination beliefs are shown to be part of a psychological propensity to believe in conspiracies.

Conspiracy Beliefs, Rejection of Vaccination, and Support for hydroxychloroquine: A Conceptual Replication-Extension in the COVID-19 Pandemic Context

“…This is congruent with the idea that conspiracy beliefs are underpinned by a generic belief system, which is characterized by negative attitudes toward powerful groups (Imhoff and Bruder, 2014). It therefore conceptually replicates research conducted before the pandemic (Lewandowsky et al, 2013;Jolley and Douglas, 2014;Imhoff and Lamberty, 2018) as well as during the pandemic (Goldberg and Richey, 2020).…”

Searching for General Model of Conspiracy Theories and Its Implication for Public Health Policy: Analysis of the Impacts of Political, Psychological, Structural Factors on Conspiracy Beliefs about the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Swami et al [ 17 ] show that beliefs in 9/11 conspiracy theories are positively related to defiance of authority. Moreover, based on a nationally representative sample of the U.S. population from the 2016 American National Election Studies, Goldberg and Richey [ 26 ] show that three different beliefs in conspiracies are positively correlated with authoritarianism. However, Oliver and Wood [ 8 ] do not find beliefs in conspiracies to be the product of greater authoritarianism, ignorance, or political conservatism.…”

“…In politics, conspiracies have always been hidden under the veil of power conflicts. Goldberg and Richey [ 26 ] find that three different beliefs in conspiracies are negatively correlated with political trust. Swami et al [ 17 ] show that beliefs in conspiracies about 9/11 are positively related to political cynicism.…”

“…Moreover, Berinsky [ 31 ] shows that more knowledgeable people are less likely to believe in political conspiracies than their low-knowledge counterparts are. Goldberg and Richey [ 26 ] demonstrate that three different beliefs in conspiracy theories are positively correlated with political knowledge.…”

Behavioral and psychosocial factors associated with COVID-19 skepticism in the United States

“…Scientific skepticism has been found to be associated with advocating or endorsing conspiracy theories (Goldberg & Richey, 2020 ; Lewandowsky, Gignac, & Oberauer, 2013 ). Furthermore, beliefs in conspiracy theories related to health behaviors have been linked to engagement in social media sources that may promote inaccurate news (Blankenship et al, 2018 ; Chan, Jamieson, & Albarracin, 2020 ; Hornsey, Finlayson, Chatwood, & Begeny, 2020 ).…”