Conspiracy beliefs and attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccinations

Abstract

During the coronavirus pandemic, this study aimed to investigate the impact of conspiracy beliefs on Finnish attitudes toward vaccinations in general and COVID-19 vaccinations in particular. This study was a conceptual replication in Finland of a study by Pivetti et al. (2021) . Some 529 Finnish participants responded to a self-report questionnaire during the partial lockdown in Finland in spring 2020. The hypothesized relationships between variables of interest were integrated in a serial multiple mediation model via structural equation modelling. Results showed that endorsing general conspiracy beliefs directly predicted (1) general attitudes toward vaccines and (2) COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, and indirectly predicted (3) attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines via the serial mediation of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and general attitudes toward vaccines. As for the antecedents of beliefs in conspiracy theories, political orientation and moral purity predicted beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Trust in science was inversely related to general conspiracy beliefs. As for the consequences of conspiracy beliefs, COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs directly predicted support for governmental restrictions (negatively) and the perception of informational contamination (positively).

Predictors of the Intention to Be Vaccinated against COVID-19 in a Sample of Italian Respondents at the Start of the Immunization Campaign

“…Perceived risk was assessed with three questions taken from Dryhurst et al [12]: "How likely do you think it is that you will be directly and personally affected by the following in the next 6 months?-Catching the coronavirus/COVID-19", "How likely do you think it is that your friends and family in the country you are currently living in will be directly affected by the following in the next 6 months?-Catching the coronavirus/COVID-19", and "How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements?-Getting sick with the coronavirus/COVID-19 can be serious". For the first two questions, participants responded on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from "not at all likely" (1) to "very likely" (7). For the third question, participants responded on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly agree" (5).…”

“…Generally speaking, Italy has a long-standing tradition of high coverage of vaccinations. However, in the last decade, the frequency of infant immunization has decreased alarmingly, leading to the introduction of a new law, the "Italian National Immunization Prevention Plan 2017-19" (n. 119/2017), which prescribes mandatory vaccinations against ten diseases for preschool and school-aged children [7]. The implementation of the law contributed to an increased awareness of the importance of vaccination in the Italian population [8].…”

Political orientation, moral foundations, and COVID-19 social distancing

“…Those on the left tend to support expanded government and increased spending, whereas those on the right usually support smaller government and reduced spending [26]. This spectrum has been used in relevant research on morality and politics in both North American [27] and European contexts [28], providing a meaningful way of pooling and comparing data from different nations. In turn, there is evidence of similar links between the left-right political spectrum and COVID-19 related attitudes and behaviours in U.S. and Canadian contexts.…”

Adaptation and validation of a French version of the Vaccination Attitudes Examination (VAX) scale

“…Further statistical analyses provided more arguments to establish validity, in particular convergent validity. The literature shows that endorsing vaccine conspiracy beliefs predicts general attitudes towards vaccine [56,57] . This relationship is verified in our study since our correlational analyses showed a positive correlation between total scores of the VAX scale and those of the Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Scale.…”