Abstract
Science may be failing to convince a significant number of people about COVID-19 scientific facts and needed public health measures. Individual and social factors are behind believing conspiracy theories. Adults (N = 1001) were asked to rate their beliefs in various conspiracy theories circulating in social media, rate their psychological distress relating to COVID-19, rate their trust in science to solve COVID-19 problems, and rate their willingness to adhere to measures regarding social distancing and quarantine. The findings showed conspiracy theories are widely believed and related to lower age, lower education, living in less densely populated areas, and lower income. Stronger conspiracy theory beliefs predicted science mistrust and unwillingness to adhere to public health measures. Psychological state was a strong predictor of conspiracy beliefs. Recommendations, stemming from the findings, for reducing such beliefs and better serving public health are discussed.
Highlights
In the first 12 days of April 2020, within the first 100 continuous posts of each day on the Facebook news feed of the first author there were24.62 (SD = 2.12) posts per day regarding COVID-19 related conspiracy theories or myths (e.g., COVID-19 was created for human population control)
The second aim of the study was to examine whether higher levels of conspiracy beliefs (CB) would predict lower adherence behavior (AB) to COVID-19 measures imposed by the governments
The first aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of common conspiracy theories circulating on social media during the social distancing and lockdowns for COVID-19 in April 2020
Summary
In the first 12 days of April 2020, within the first 100 continuous posts of each day (total of 1200 posts in 12 days) on the Facebook news feed of the first author there were. 24.62 (SD = 2.12) posts per day regarding COVID-19 related conspiracy theories or myths (e.g., COVID-19 was created for human population control). Of those conspiracy theory posts called for some form of action or uprising against the government measures taken for COVID-19. Many older conspiracy theories and myths were resurfacing on social media or even linked somehow to the current. COVID-19 situation (e.g., 5G telephony, vaccination link to autism, etc.). Conspiracy theory beliefs are not a new pandemic phenomenon [1,2], yet they seem to have taken central stage during this pandemic. Fake news spreads faster and more than this virus, and is just as dangerous” [3]
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