Abstract

Why are mistaken beliefs about COVID-19 so prevalent? Political identity, education and other demographic variables explain only a part of individual differences in the susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation. This paper focuses on another explanation: epistemic vice. Epistemic vices are character traits that interfere with acquiring, maintaining, and transmitting knowledge. If the basic assumption of vice epistemology is right, then people with epistemic vices such as indifference to the truth or rigidity in their belief structures will tend to be more susceptible to believing COVID-19 misinformation. We carried out an observational study (US sample, n = 998) in which we measured the level of epistemic vice of participants using a novel Epistemic Vice Scale. We also asked participants questions eliciting the extent to which they subscribe to myths and misinformation about COVID-19. We find overwhelming evidence to the effect that epistemic vice is associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation. In fact, the association turns out to be stronger than with political identity, educational attainment, scores on the Cognitive Reflection Test, personality, dogmatism, and need for closure. We conclude that this offers evidence in favor of the empirical presuppositions of vice epistemology.

Highlights

  • Are hand dryers effective in killing the novel coronavirus? Do houseflies transmit the disease? Should you spray your body with or drink bleach to make sure you don’t get infected? Certainly not

  • We carried out an observational study in which we measured the level of epistemic vice of participants using a novel Epistemic Vice Scale that we developed and validated

  • This paper demonstrates that a compact and administered self-report questionnaire greatly outperforms existing measures, including the Cognitive Reflection Test, in predicting susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation

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Summary

Introduction

Are hand dryers effective in killing the novel coronavirus? Do houseflies transmit the disease? Should you spray your body with or drink bleach to make sure you don’t get infected? Certainly not. This paper explores whether epistemic vice can explain why people believe COVID-19 myths. If the basic assumption of vice epistemology is right, people with higher degrees of epistemic vice will tend to be more susceptible to COVID-19 myths This is what we set out to study. We find overwhelming evidence to the effect that a person’s degree of epistemic vice is associated with the extent to which they believe COVID-19 myths and misinformation. Epistemic vice is more strongly associated with endorsement of COVID-19 misinformation than other psychological measures, including personality, dogmatism, the Cognitive Reflection Test, and need for closure. We conclude that this offers evidence in favor of the empirical presuppositions of vice epistemology.

What is epistemic vice?
Development of the Epistemic Vice Scale
The Epistemic Vice Scale and current debates in vice epistemology
Measuring susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation
Analysis and results
Findings
Conclusion
Full Text
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