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. 2021 Jul 21;18(15):7725.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18157725.

Conspiracy Beliefs Are Related to the Use of Smartphones behind the Wheel

Pedro M Valero-Mora  1 , Juan José Zacarés  2 , Mar Sánchez-García  2 , María Teresa Tormo-Lancero  3 , Mireia Faus  3
Affiliations

Conspiracy Beliefs Are Related to the Use of Smartphones behind the Wheel

Pedro M Valero-Mora et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The belief in conspiracy theories predicts behaviors related to public health such as the willingness to receive vaccines. This study applies a similar approach to an aspect of road safety: the use of smartphones while driving. A representative sample of 1706 subjects answered a series of questions related to what can be regarded as erroneous or conspiracy beliefs against restricting or banning the use of smartphones while driving. The results show that those having such conspiracy beliefs reported a greater use of smartphones behind the wheel.

Keywords: adulthood; developmental psychology; driving; risk behaviour; smartphones.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest and the founding sponsors had no role in the in the writing of the manuscript, an in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Coefficients of the regression model predicting smartphone use. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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