Do not believe everything you see online: The relationship between social media use, COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and engagement in preventive behaviours

Abstract

Social media use has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and a proliferation of conspiracy beliefs about the pandemic has been seen on these platforms. We investigate (1) the extent to which people use social media to find health information, hold conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 and engage in preventive behaviours; (2) whether belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories mediated the relationship between using social media for health information and engaging in preventive behaviours and (3) whether differences exist in social media use between those who hold and those who do not hold COVID-19 pandemic conspiracy beliefs. Participants (N = 262; M age = 28.61, SD = 10.33) completed an online questionnaire with measures of social media use, conspiracy beliefs and engagement in COVID-19 preventive behaviours. We found participants used social media for over thirty minutes per day for health information and that approximately one in three people hold at least one conspiracy belief about COVID-19. Belief in conspiracy theories mediated the relationship between social media use and engagement in preventive behaviours. Furthermore, people who used Instagram for health information and those who primarily turned to influencer and personal accounts for health information were more likely to hold conspiracy beliefs.