Conspiracy Theories and Their Societal Effects During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During COVID-19, conspiracy theories were intensely discussed in the media. Generally, both believing in conspiracy theories (i.e., explanations for events based on powerholders’ secret arrangements) and being confronted with a conspiracy theory have been found to predict cognition and behavior with negative societal effects, such as low institutional trust. Accordingly, believing in conspiracy theories around COVID-19 should reduce institutional trust, support of governmental regulations and their adoption, and social engagement (e.g., helping members of risk groups). We tested these predictions in a national random sample survey, an experiment, and a longitudinal study ( N total = 1,213; all studies were preregistered). Indeed, believing in and being confronted with a COVID-19 conspiracy theory decreased institutional trust, support of governmental regulations, adoption of physical distancing, and—to some extent—social engagement. Findings underscore the severe societal effects of conspiracy theories in the context of COVID-19.

Factors Related to COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors: A Structural Equation Model

“…The highest negative correlation appears between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, and trust in COVID-19 information sources (H1 supported) suggests that belief in conspiracy theories undermines trust in official sources of information and evidencebased information (Banai et al, 2020;Pummerer et al, 2021). The results also show negative correlation between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and COVID-19 threat appraisal (H3 supported), and as mentioned in other studies (Swami et al, 2014;Allington et al, 2020;Banai et al, 2020), our research confirms a negative correlation between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and COVID-19 preventive behaviors (H6 partially supported).…”

“…The results also show negative correlation between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and COVID-19 threat appraisal (H3 supported), and as mentioned in other studies (Swami et al, 2014;Allington et al, 2020;Banai et al, 2020), our research confirms a negative correlation between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and COVID-19 preventive behaviors (H6 partially supported). This means that the interpretation of COVID-19 through conspiracy theories reduces the assessment of the severity of the situation and the severity of the disease, which in turn leads to the disregard of preventive behavioral measures (Kim and Kim, 2021;Pummerer et al, 2021). However, in the process of SEM (adding other independent variables in the model), this correlation was no longer significant, which reveals that explanations of COVID-19 through various conspiracies do not directly affect the individual's implementation of virus control measures.…”

“…One more study finds that younger people with higher education have more confidence in evidence-based information, but there is no gender difference (Borgonovi and Pokropek, 2020). As for belief in various conspiracy theories, part of the research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic found no differences between age, gender and level of education in relation to COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs (Pasion et al, 2020;Pummerer et al, 2021). Another study showed differences in socio-demographic factors, in particular younger women with lower levels of education were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories (Pickles et al, 2020).…”

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

“…In other words, people who endorse conspiracy beliefs are more likely to doubt government communication. In the context of the current pandemic, belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories was found to decrease institutional trust and support for government regulations (Pummerer et al, 2021). Furthermore, belief in COVID conspiracy theories was associated with less trust in the local government (Earnshaw et al, 2020).…”

No Evidence That Belief in Conspiracy Theories is Negatively Related to Attitudes Toward Transhumanism

“…Given the current popularity of conspiracy theories around COVID-19 and their societal consequences (Pummerer et al, 2021) as well as the growth of anti-science movements and science skepticism (Rutjens et al, 2018(Rutjens et al, , 2021, it is important to better understand factors that foster conspiracy theories, taking care not to discard any line of investigation. The purpose of the present research was to test the predictive role of belief in conspiracy theories in attitudes toward transhumanism, a line of investigation that had never been investigated so far.…”