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

Latkin, Carl A.; Dayton, Lauren; Moran, Meghan Bridgid; Strickland, Justin C.; Collins, Karina

doi:10.1007/s12144-020-01211-3

Cited by 96 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The present findings are consistent with previous studies showing that conspiracy beliefs are associated with disregarding public health advice in other health domains (Bogart & Thorburn, 2005;Grebe & Nattrass, 2012), and during the current COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., e.g. Biddlestone et al, 2020;Bierwiaczonek et al, 2020;Erceg et al, 2020;Hornik et al, 2021;Kowalski et al, 2020;Latkin et al, 2021;Marinthe et al, 2020;Oleksy et al, 2020). When it comes to the mediating role of trust in government officials in the present study, conspiracy beliefs decreased the level of trust and consequently the level of compliance with governmental protective measures.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, compliance with the preventive measures, and trust in government medical officials

Banai

Banai²,

Mikloušić³

2021

Curr Psychol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The COVID -19 pandemic represents a global health crisis, so adherence to government guidelines and public health advice is critical in reducing transmission rates. Despite this, it has been reported that a minority of people do not comply with the governmental guidelines. When considering the reasons why some people do not comply with preventive measures, previous studies have shown that beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories negatively predict responsible pandemic-related behaviour. This, in turn, could seriously undermine success in combating the pandemic. Our aim was, therefore, to further investigate the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and adherence to official COVID-19 medical guidelines by including mediating roles of beliefs in pseudoscientific information and trust in government officials. A total of 1882 adults from Croatia provided sociodemographic information and completed several scales related to COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, beliefs in pseudoscientific information, trust in government officials, and adherence to official COVID-19 guidelines. A multiple mediation analysis revealed a direct negative effect of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs on compliance with the preventive measures. In addition, conspiracy beliefs were indirectly related to compliance via trust in government officials. The present study builds upon emerging research showing that conspiracy beliefs may have significant social consequences and pose a potential risk to public health. Practical implications of these findings are discussed further.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, compliance with the preventive measures, and trust in government medical officials

Banai

Banai²,

Mikloušić³

2021

Curr Psychol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They might also believe that pandemic prevention is useless for them. In this regard, Latkin et al [ 31 ] studied the linkages of COVID-19 skepticism with protection behavior, social distancing, conspiracy theories, and individuals’ political ideas in the U.S. and revealed the highly skeptical individuals less likely to adopt COVID-19 protection. Alper [ 32 ] investigated the correlation between COVID-19 conspiracy theories and protection adoption and revealed no link between the two in the Turkish context.…”

Section: Literature Review and Hypotheses Formulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intention-Based Critical Factors Affecting Willingness to Adopt Novel Coronavirus Prevention in Pakistan: Implications for Future Pandemics

Ahmad

Akhtar

Jabeen

et al. 2021

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since human beings have a long tradition of coexistence with pandemics, which may profoundly impact them, adopting preventive measures is crucial for humankind’s survival. This study explores the intention-based critical factors affecting the willingness of individuals to adopt pandemic prevention. To this end, a representative sample of 931 Pakistanis filled in an online questionnaire. However, only 828 questionnaires were found to be complete and valid for path modeling analysis. The core findings are as follows: Firstly, peer groups’ beliefs, self-efficacy, perceived risk, pandemic knowledge, ease of pandemic prevention adoption, and risk-averse behavior are revealed as driving forces of the individuals’ willingness to adopt pandemic prevention. Contrastingly, a lack of trust in political will and mythical attitude towards pandemics are uncovered as inhibitors. Nevertheless, moral values depict a neutral role. Secondly, the peer groups’ beliefs are highest ranked, followed by the lack of trust in political will and a mythical attitude towards pandemic prevention. Finally, moral values are determined as the lowest-ranked critical factor. Based on these results, the government should promote awareness campaigns on lethality and fatality of the pandemic at both centralized and decentralized levels to win people’s trust at the grass-roots level and overcome the mythical attitude of individuals at all societal levels. Besides, access to personal protective gears should be made feasible since an easier pandemic prevention adoption would increase the individuals’ willingness to adopt such preventative measures.

show abstract

“…As COVID-19 continues to spread globally, its perceived threat has become increasingly politically-polarised in the United States (Hart et al, 2020). Democrats are more likely than Republicans to view COVID-19 as a major threat to public and personal health (Van Green & Tyson, 2020), and conservatism appears to be associated with lower levels of perceived personal COVID-19 vulnerability (Calvillo et al, 2020) and increased scepticism (Latkin et al, 2021). This is unexpected, given that conservatives are generally more threat sensitive than liberals (Jost et al, 2003), and have a heightened motivation to avoid pathogens (Tybur et al, 2016).…”

Section: Political Differences In Perceptions Of Personal Threat Of Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Ideological Attitudes in Responses to COVID-19 Threat and Government Restrictions in Australia

Clarke¹,

Klas²,

Dyos³

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many government strategies to reduce the spread of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) involved unprecedented restrictions on personal movement, disrupting social and economic norms. Although generally well-received in Australia, some community frustration regarding these restrictions appeared to diverge across political lines. Therefore, we examined the unique effects of the ideological subfactors of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA; Aggression, Submission and Conventionalism) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO; Dominance and Anti-Egalitarianism) in predicting levels of COVID-19 threat, support for and reactance to restrictions in Australian residents (N = 451, 227 male, 217 female, 7 non-binary; Mage = 32.12, SDage = 10.99). Anti-Egalitarianism predicted lower COVID-19 threat (β = -.22) and support for restrictions (β = -.22); Dominance predicted lower support for restrictions (β = -.17) and higher reactance (β = .24); Submission predicted higher support for restrictions (β = .15) and lower reactance (β = -.20); and Conventionalism predicted higher reactance (β = .14).

show abstract

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

Cited by 96 publications

References 46 publications

Beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, compliance with the preventive measures, and trust in government medical officials

Beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, compliance with the preventive measures, and trust in government medical officials

Intention-Based Critical Factors Affecting Willingness to Adopt Novel Coronavirus Prevention in Pakistan: Implications for Future Pandemics

The Role of Ideological Attitudes in Responses to COVID-19 Threat and Government Restrictions in Australia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About