Expectations about the “Natural Order of Things” and Conspiracy Beliefs about COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an event that unsettled the social and economic life of many people. When individuals are faced with shocking events, they may need to find plausible explanations for such events to restore control and make sense of reality. The adoption of conspiracy beliefs may represent a functional strategy for this purpose. The present study investigated whether the endorsement of conspiracy beliefs may be associated with the degree to which an upsetting event (i.e., the COVID-19 pandemic) is perceived as incoherent with individuals’ general set of expectations about the world functioning (i.e., the natural order of things). Analyzing data from a community sample of 565 Italian participants, a path analysis model highlighted a mediation pattern where the natural order of things was negatively related to the adoption of conspiracy beliefs and, thus, was indirectly and positively related to support for the norms aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19, feelings of guilt about neglecting such norms, and intentions to be compliant with COVID-19 vaccination. Moreover, the natural order of things was indirectly and negatively related to attitudes focused on economic issues rather than public health and to negative attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines through reduced beliefs in conspiracies.

Adapting and Validating the COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Scales in Korea

“…In addition, these study results may be used as basic data for revitalizing clinical practice, community health management, intervention, and research in the future. However, because this study was conducted using an internet-based survey method during the development and validity evaluation process, differences in results and selection bias problems cannot be excluded when factors such as academic background and health status are included [ 41 , 42 ]. In addition, according to previous studies, it is reported that psychological factors such as environment, values, social beliefs, and guilt can affect beliefs, so further research is needed.…”

What is hiding behind the rainbow plot? The gender ideology and LGBTQ+ lobby conspiracies (GILC) scale

“…COVID‐19 Conspiracy Scale (Giacomantonio et al, 2022): This scale consists of eight items which evaluates people's conspiracy beliefs related to COVID‐19 pandemic. The 5‐point Likert scale was from 1 = totally disagree to 5 = totally agree .…”

“…There are several themes that characterize CTs such as the oppositional nature, in the sense that they counter the publicly accepted explanation of an event, the description of a malevolent act, the attribution of agency to powerful persons and groups rather than to systemic effects, the tendency to falsity and the potential to interpret and to shape social events (Biddlestone, Green, et al, 2022; Douglas et al, 2019, 2022; Douglas & Sutton, 2011, 2018; Imhoff et al, 2022; Jolley et al, 2020; Liekefett et al, 2021; Wood & Douglas, 2013). To date, CTs are many and they touch a great number of phenomena and aspects of reality, ranging from health (Giacomantonio et al, 2022) to the environment and climate (Biddlestone, Azevedo, & van der Linden, 2022), from migratory phenomena (Plenta, 2020) to terrorist attacks (Kruglanski et al, 2022), including all the eccentric ones related to aliens, famous deaths, flat earth, the denial of moon landing and so on (Salvati et al, 2022).…”

“…We expected a mono‐factorial structure of the tool, with high levels of internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha > .70), invariant by respondents' gender, sexual orientation and previous knowledge or hearsay of gender ideology. Our expectation about the mono‐factorial structure of the tool was based on the evidence that almost all scales investigating specific conspiracy contents show a mono‐factor structure, such as the Conspiracy Beliefs about COVID‐19 (Giacomantonio et al, 2022), the Conspiracy Beliefs About HIV Scale (Bogart & Thorburn, 2005) and the Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Scale (Shapiro et al, 2016). Furthermore, even previous validated scales measuring different conspiracy beliefs failed in finding multifactorial structures, such as the General Conspiracy Contents (Brotherton et al, 2013) or the Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (Swami et al, 2010).…”

From Conspiracy to Hesitancy: The Longitudinal Impact of COVID-19 Vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Perceived Vaccine Effectiveness

“…In general, the embrace of specific medical-related conspiracies can drive mistrust in health professionals and health institutions, as well as discourage individuals from seeking medical help [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Examples of the negative consequences of conspiratorial ideas on health behavior were manifested during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and included: lower adherence to following public health preventive measures, including the use of face masks, and reluctance or resistance to get vaccinated, defined as vaccination hesitancy [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. Thus, the harmful effect of vaccination hesitancy extends beyond the mere holding of these beliefs to involve behavior manifested in lower vaccine uptake.…”