Are COVID‐19 conspiracies a threat to public health? Psychological characteristics and health protective behaviours of believers

Abstract

We tested the link between COVID‐19 conspiracy theories and health protective behaviours in three studies: one at the onset of the pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK), a second just before the first national lockdown, and a third during that lockdown ( N = 302, 404 and 399). We focused on conspiracy theories that did not deny the existence of COVID‐19 and evaluated the extent to which they predicted a range of health protective behaviours, before and after controlling for psychological and sociodemographic characteristics associated with conspiracy theory belief. COVID‐19 conspiracy beliefs were positively correlated with beliefs in other unrelated conspiracies and a general conspiracy mind‐set, and negatively correlated with trust in government and a tendency towards analytical thinking (vs. intuitive thinking). Unexpectedly, COVID‐19 conspiracy believers adhered to basic health guidelines and advanced health protective measures as strictly as non‐believers. Conspiracy believers were, however, less willing to install the contact‐tracing app, get tested for and vaccinated against COVID‐19, and were more likely to share COVID‐19 misinformation – all of which might undermine public health initiatives. Study 3 showed conspiracy theory believers were less willing to undertake health protective behaviours that were outside of their personal control, perceiving these as having a negative balance of risks and benefits. We discuss models explaining conspiracy beliefs and health protective behaviours, and suggest practical recommendations for public health initiatives. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

COVID-19 Information Sources and Health Behaviors During Pregnancy: Results From a Prenatal App-Embedded Survey

“…Indeed, it is possible that an excess of fear and uncertainty, rather than lack of information, drives engagement in behaviors without an evidence base. This echoes a prior research finding that COVID-19 conspiracy theorists showed increased rates of protective behaviors, both those that were and those that were not recommended by governmental bodies [ 31 ].…”

Do Attitudes, Trust, and Acceptance of Pseudoscience and Conspiracy Theories Predict COVID-19 Vaccination Status?

“…The stronger, more accessible, stable, and specific the attitude, the more likely that attitude is to lead to behaviors that are consistent with that attitude. We would, therefore, expect that when it comes to COVID vaccination, a similar trend would emerge, which has been observed in previous studies specific to the COVID vaccine (e.g., Juanchich et al, 2021, Wolff, 2021. That is, the conclusion that some individuals have pre-existing anti-vaccine attitudes that result in a bias against receiving the COVID vaccine is well-founded and one we expected to reproduce in the current study.…”

“…Although acceptance of pseudoscience beliefs or COVID conspiracies are often pointed to as strong primary differentiators among those who have chosen to vaccinate and those who have not (e.g., Juanchich et al, 2021;Jennings et al, 2021), our results indicate that both variables are, at most, distal predictors of vaccination decisions. Rather, acceptance of conspiracies and pseudoscience beliefs appear to be only a small component of vaccine hesitancy.…”

Finding Someone to Blame: The Link Between COVID-19 Conspiracy Beliefs, Prejudice, Support for Violence, and Other Negative Social Outcomes

“…Our results complement these findings and extend them also to the domain of more general actions of non-compliance with government regulations and violent protests. Although, not all studies found link between endorsement of conspiracy theories and lowered adherence to health protective behaviors (Imhoff and Lamberty, 2020;Juanchich et al, 2021), it largely depends on the what kinds of behaviors were examined. For example, people believing in conspiracy theories in Juanchich et al (2021) washed their hands as often as non-believers, but they were still less willing to install the contact-tracing app or get vaccinated, i.e., socially oriented behaviors.…”