The anatomy of COVID‐19‐related conspiracy beliefs: Exploring their nomological network on a nationally representative sample

Abstract

Objectives:The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was followed by the widespread proliferation of conspiracy beliefs (CBs) regarding the origin and harmfulness of the virus and a high level of hesitancy to vaccinate. We aimed to test a series of hypotheses on the correlates of CBs and vaccination, including socio-demographic factors, personality dispositions, somatic health, stressful experiences during pandemics, and psychological distress. Method: The sample (N = 1203), was based on a multistage probabilistic household sampling representative of the general population. The subjects were randomly split into two approximately equal subgroups, enabling cross-validation. Based on the findings in the exploratory, the SEM model was tested in the confirmatory subsample. Results: The correlates of CBs were Disintegration (proneness to psychotic-like experiences), low Openness, lower education, Extraversion, living in a smaller settlement and being employed. The correlates of vaccination were older age, CBs and larger places of living. Evidence on the role of stressful experiences and psychological distress in CBs/ vaccination was not found. The findings of moderately strong and robust (cross-validated) paths, leading from Disintegration to CBs and from CBs to vaccination were the most important ones. Discussion: Conspiratorial thinking tendencies-related to health-related behaviour such as vaccination-appear to be, to a considerable extent, manifestations of the mechanisms that are part of our stable, broad, trait-like thinking/ emotional/motivational/behavioural tendencies, primarily proneness to psychotic-like experiences & behaviours.