Post-truth epistemic beliefs rooted in the Dark Factor of Personality are associated with higher COVID-19 vaccination refusal

Abstract

A substantial number of people refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19, which prompts the question as to why. We focus on the role of individual worldviews about the nature and generation of knowledge (epistemic beliefs). We propose a model that includes epistemic beliefs, their relationship to the Dark Factor of Personality (D), and their mutual effect on the probability of having been vaccinated against COVID-19. Based on a US nationally representative sample (N = 1268), we show that stronger endorsement of post-truth epistemic beliefs was associated with a lower probability of having been vaccinated against COVID-19. D was also linked to a lower probability of having been vaccinated against COVID-19, which can be explained by post-truth epistemic beliefs. Our results indicate that the more individuals deliberately refrain from adhering to the better argument, the less likely they are vaccinated. More generally, post-truth epistemic beliefs pose a challenge for rational communication.

How and why aversive personality is expressed in political preferences.

“…Consistent with this conceptualization, D shows high stability over 4 years, performs on par with most specific aversive traits in predicting the development of said trait (Zettler et al, 2021), and predicts many consequential outcomes in a variety of domains, including aggression, behavioral nonadjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic, cheating, crime, sexism, social preferences, vengeance, and violence (Bader et al, 2022; Bonfá-Araujo et al, 2023; Denissen et al, 2022; Dinić et al, 2023; Hilbig et al, 2023; Rudloff et al, 2023; Schrödter et al, 2021; Ścigała et al, 2021; Vize et al, 2021; Woike et al, 2022). Crucially, D has been shown to fully account for the aversive essence of specific aversive traits in that the latter typically do not explain incremental variance in aversive outcomes once controlling for D (Hilbig et al, 2023; Moshagen et al, 2018).…”

To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? The role of personality

“…Anti-Vaxxers, on the other hand, scored higher on the Dark Triad traits for which there also seems to be some empirical evidence in this rapidly growing literature (e.g., Rudloff et al, 2023). Dark traits may predispose individuals towards mistrust of authority and "post-truth epistemic beliefs", which encompass a strong faith in one's intuition for facts, a low need for evidence, and the strong conviction that truth is political (Rudloff et al, 2022(Rudloff et al, , 2023.…”