Is It All a Conspiracy? Conspiracy Theories and People’s Attitude to COVID-19 Vaccination

Abstract

A large body of research has found that people’s beliefs in conspiracy theories about infectious diseases negatively impacts their health behaviors concerning vaccination. Conspiracy belief-based vaccination hesitancy has become more rampant after the global outbreak of COVID-19. However, some important questions remain unanswered. For instance, do different versions of conspiracy theories—particularly conspiracy theories about the origin of the epidemic (e.g., that the SARS-CoV-2 leaked from a Wuhan virology laboratory or that the virus was of foreign origin) and the general theories about vaccine conspiracies (e.g., pharmaceutical companies covered up the danger of vaccines or people are being deceived about the effectiveness of vaccines)—have the same effect on vaccination intentions? Through a national survey adopting quota sampling in China, the current study tested the relationship between people’s conspiracy beliefs and their intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. The findings show that people’s embrace of conspiracy theories did indeed affect their intention to take COVID-19 shots. However, only conspiracy theories related to vaccines had a significant impact, while belief in more general theories about COVID-19 did not significantly affect vaccination intentions. People’s knowledge of vaccines (vaccine literacy) played an important role in this relationship. People with lower beliefs in vaccines conspiracy theories and higher levels of vaccine literacy were more likely to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.

Public Policy Measures to Increase Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination Rate in Russia

“…Daniel von Wachter performed perhaps one of the most profound social analyses of COVID-19-related conspiracy theories and found that there should be a distinction between “ungrounded” conspiracy beliefs (e.g., SARS-CoV-2 is a special biological weapon) and “rational” conspiracy beliefs (i.e., the system of ideas and corresponding heath behavioral responses of a population) by means of which people try to find logic in administrative steps taken by authorities in the COVID-19 situation and explain them somehow [ 49 ]. Many researchers stress that COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs are spread like an infodemic because of social network communication [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ]. A considerable part of conspiracist ideas in different countries is devoted to COVID-19 vaccination and prevention measures associated with using QR (quick response) codes [ 60 , 61 , 62 ].…”

Design and Cross-Cultural Invariance of the COVID-19 Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Scale (COVID-VCBS) in 13 Latin American Countries

“…In this sense, previous studies have suggested that the acceptance of traditional conspiracy beliefs, such as those referring to the arrival of people on the moon, are associated with negative attitudes toward vaccines ( 113 ); while both conspiratorial beliefs about COVID-19 and having a conspiratorial mindset in general negatively predicted intentions to be vaccinated against COVID-19 ( 25 ). However, the latter is an issue that deserves further investigation, as a previous study suggested that only belief in vaccine-related conspiracy theories had a significant negative impact on intentions to be vaccinated, while belief in pandemic conspiracy theories in general did not have a significant impact on intentions to be vaccinated ( 115 ).…”

“…However, it has also been suggested that citizens' trust in institutions may generally influence whether or not they support conspiracy theories, but that they do not determine whether beliefs translate into prevention behaviors ( 112 ). Other variables must also be considered in order to understand vaccine conspiracy theories in Latin America, which have been shown to play an important role in other contexts such as the United States, Europe and Asia, such as trust in science, political orientation and populism ( 121 , 122 ), anomie and health threat perceptions ( 123 ) and vaccine literacy ( 115 ), among others. In Latin America, it has been suggested that ethnic discrimination ( 62 ), sex, age, the level of education and the medium through which information about the COVID-19 vaccine is received ( 124 ) are variables related to the acceptance or non-acceptance of conspiratorial ideas about the COVID-19 vaccines.…”

Who Thinks COVID-19 is a Hoax? Psychological Correlates of Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories and Attitudes Towards Anti-Coronavirus Measures at the End of the First Lockdown in Germany

“…Recent studies report that people who believe in or are confronted with a COVID-19 conspiracy theory had lower trust in institutions and lower support for governmental regulations (Pummerer et al, 2022). Also, vaccinations intentions can be negatively affected (Yang et al, 2021). The presented dataset addresses various antecedents to beliefs in conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and can therefore contribute to a better understanding of COVID-19 related conspiracy theories in Germany.…”