Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov 1:166:110201.
doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.110201. Epub 2020 Jun 16.

COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs

Neophytos Georgiou  1 , Paul Delfabbro  1 , Ryan Balzan  2
Affiliations

COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs

Neophytos Georgiou et al. Pers Individ Dif. .

Abstract

Previous studies have down that erroneous Conspiracy Theory (CT) beliefs develop more strongly in people who have underlying conspiratorial reasoning styles and psychopathological traits and particularly when they are faced with stressful external events (Swami et al., 2013; van Prooijen, 2018). In this study, we test this proposition by examining the individual differences associated with the development of COVID-19-related CT beliefs during the pandemic. A total of 660 adults completed a survey that captured COVID-related CT beliefs and broader conspiracy beliefs, education, perceived stress and attitudes towards government responses. The results showed that COVID-19 related CT beliefs were: strongly related to broader CT beliefs, higher in those with lower levels of education; and, positively (although weakly) correlated with more negative attitudes towards government responses. However, no relationship was found between COVID-19 beliefs and self-reported stress. These findings hold implications for why some people are more likely to be resistant to public health interventions relating to COVID-19. The findings encourage more detailed exploration of the causes and sources of CTs and, in particular, the role of social media use and other information sources in the development and perpetuation of health-related CT beliefs.

Keywords: COVID-19; Conspiracy theories; Education; Perceived stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Balzan R.P., Delfabbro P.H., Galletly C., Woodward T.S. Reasoning heuristics across the psychosis continuum: The contribution of hypersalient evidence-hypothesis matches. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry. 2012;17:431–450. - PubMed
    1. Barron D., Furnham A., Weis L., Morgan K.D., Towell T., Swami V. The relationship between schizotypal facets and conspiracist beliefs via cognitive processes. Psychiatry Research. 2018;259:15–20. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.10.001. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barron D., Morgan K., Towell T., Altemeyer B., Swami V. Associations between schizotypy and belief in conspiracist ideation. Personality and Individual Differences. 2014;70:156–159. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.06.040. - DOI
    1. Brotherton R., French C.C., Pickering A.D. Measuring belief in conspiracy theories: The generic Conspiracist beliefs scale. Frontiers in Psychology. 2013;4:279. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00279. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Buchy L., Woodward T.S., Liotti M. A cognitive bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE) is associated with schizotypy. Schizophrenia Research. 2007;90:334–337. - PubMed