From ‘Great Awakening’ to sending death threats: A study of police-recorded crimes driven by conspiracy theories in the Netherlands

Editorial—The truth is out there: The psychology of conspiracy theories and how to counter them

Practical recommendations to communicate with patients about health‐related conspiracy theories

At the time of writing, nearly one hundred published studies demonstrate that beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation are negatively associated with COVID-19 preventive behaviors. These correlational findings are often interpreted as evidence that beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation are exogenous factors that shape human behavior, such as forgoing vaccination. This interpretation has motivated researchers to develop methods for “prebunking,” “debunking,” or otherwise limiting the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation online. However, the robust literatures on conspiracy theory beliefs, health behaviors, and media effects lead us to question whether beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation should be treated as exogenous to vaccine hesitancy and refusal. Employing U.S. survey data (n = 2,065) from July 2021, we show that beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation are not only related to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal, but also strongly associated with the same psychological, social, and political motivations theorized to drive COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal. These findings suggest that beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation might not always be an exogenous cause, but rather a manifestation of the same factors that lead to vaccine hesitancy and refusal. We conclude by encouraging researchers to carefully consider modeling choices and imploring practitioners to refocus on the worldviews, personality traits, and political orientations that underlie both health-related behaviors and beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation.

Belief in COVID-19 related conspiracy theories around the globe: A systematic review

Conspiracy theories often emerge during public health crises, and can provide some explanation for the causes behind the crises. However, the prevalence of conspiracy theories also poses a serious threat to public health order and hinders the implementation of disease prevention and control measures. No studies have examined the role of multiple risk perceptions in the formation of beliefs in conspiracy theories from a cognitive perspective in the context of the epidemic. In this cross-sectional study, participants filled in an online survey in order to investigate the relationship between epidemic severity and beliefs in conspiracy theories and the mediating role of risk perception in this relationship. The results showed that COVID-19 epidemic severity positively predicted beliefs in both in- and out-group conspiracy theories. Risk perception mediated the positive relationship between COVID-19 epidemic severity and belief in in-group conspiracy theories. These results suggest that in a major public health crisis event: (1) residents at the epicenter may be more prone to believing in both in- and out-group conspiracy theories; and (2) beliefs in in- and out-group conspiracy theories may have different psychological mechanisms. Therefore, conspiracy theories about public health incidents, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, should be classified and treated by policy stakeholders.

A substantial minority of the public express belief in conspiracy theories. A robust phenomenon in this area is that people who believe one conspiracy theory are more likely to believe in others. But the reason for this "positive manifold" of belief in conspiracy theories is unclear. One possibility is that a single underlying latent factor (e.g. "conspiracism") causes variation in belief in specific conspiracy theories. Another possibility is that beliefs in various conspiracy theories support one another in a mutually reinforcing network of beliefs (the "monological belief system" theory). While the monological theory has been influential in the literature, the fact that it can be operationalised as a statistical network model has not previously been recognised. In this study, we therefore tested both the unidimensional factor model and a network model. Participants were 1553 American adults recruited via Prolific. Belief in conspiracies was measured using an adapted version of the Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory. The fit of the two competing models was evaluated both by using van Bork et al.'s (Psychometrika, 83, 2018, 443, Multivariate Behavioral Research, 56, 2019, 175) method for testing network versus unidimensional factor models, as well as by evaluating goodness of fit to the sample covariance matrix. In both cases, evaluation of fit according to our pre-registered inferential criteria favoured the network model.

This study investigated the relationship between fear of the coronavirus, belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and dimensions of the need for cognitive closure. As there is evidence of associations between these variables, we hypothesized that the relationship between the need for closure dimensions and coronavirus fear may be mediated by conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19. We analyzed the results from 380 individuals who completed online versions of three scales: the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, a short version of the Need for Closure Scale, and-designed for this study-the Conspiracy Theories about the Coronavirus Scale. The results showed that belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories fully mediated the relationship between the fear of the coronavirus and avoidance of ambiguity, as well as closed-mindedness. The findings provided evidence that beliefs in conspiracy theories may play a significant role in reducing the level of coronavirus fear in people with high levels of these traits. In addition, a partial mediation between the fear of the coronavirus and the need for predictability was found. The limitations and implications of the research are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic unleashed a torrent of conspiracy theories across different social media platforms. Parallel to this conspiracy wave was a heightened sense of nationalism, which manifested through both in-group solidarity and perceived out-group threats. In this study, we examine how individuals’ use of government social media to gather political information correlated with nation-related conspiracy beliefs during the pandemic. Data were collected from 745 subjects in China and analyzed through path analyses, which allowed us to examine the direct association with political information consumption from government social media and the indirect association with nationalism on conspiracy beliefs. The results indicated that the use of government social media to gather political information was associated with greater beliefs in nation-variant COVID-19 conspiracies, both directly and through different mediations of nationalism. Our findings highlight the importance of examining government social media use and how nationalism can have differentiated mediation effects on beliefs in conspiracy theories.

COVID-19 conspiracy theories have proliferated during the global pandemic, and their rapid spread among certain groups may jeopardize the public health response (e.g., undermining motivation to engage in social distancing and willingness to vaccinate against the virus). Using survey data from two waves of a nationally representative, longitudinal study of life in lockdown in the United Kingdom (N= 1,406), we analyze the factors associated with belief in three origin theories related to COVID-19, namely that it 1) originated in a meat market in Wuhan, China; 2) was developed in a lab in Wuhan, China; and 3) is caused by 5G mobile networks. Our findings suggest that political-psychological predispositions are strongly associated with belief in conspiracy theories about the virus, though the direction and effect sizes of these predictors vary depending on the specific content of each origin theory. For instance, belief in the Chinese lab conspiracy theory is strongly associated with right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), social dominance orientation (SDO), and general conspiracy ideation, as well as less reliable news sources, distrust in scientists, and anxiety about the pandemic. Belief in the 5G network conspiracy theory is strongly associated with SDO, distrust in scientists, while less strongly with conspiracy ideation and information from social networks/media; RWA is strongly negatively associated with belief in the 5G conspiracy theory, with older and more wealthy individuals somewhat less likely to endorse it. The meat market origin theory is predicted by intolerance of uncertainty, ethnocentrism, COVID-19 anxiety, and less so by higher income, while distrust in scientists is negatively associated with this origin story. Finally, belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories is associated with negative public health behaviors such as unwillingness to social distance and vaccinate against the virus. Crucially, our findings suggest that the specific content of COVID-19 conspiracy theories likely determines which individuals may be most likely to endorse them.

Conspiracy Theories, Mistrust Take Root During Pandemic

Researchers have theorized about how belief in conspiracy theories can negatively affect interpersonal relationships. However, despite growing anecdotal evidence of the effects that conspiracy theories seem to have on people's relationships, a systematic assessment of these effects is lacking. In seven studies (six of them preregistered, N = 2526), we examined whether people's perceptions of others' conspiracy beliefs were negatively associated with their actual (or anticipated) relationship satisfaction with those others. We found that participants' perceptions of their social contacts' beliefs in general (Pilot Studies 1–2) and specific conspiracy theories (Study 1) were negatively associated with their relationship satisfaction with those contacts. Using a hypothetical scenario, we further observed that participants anticipated that their relationship satisfaction would worsen when one of these social contacts explicitly endorsed (vs. opposed) a conspiracy theory (Studies 2, 3a, and 3b). Finally, participants expected lower relationship satisfaction with a stranger who endorsed (vs. opposed) a conspiracy theory in their online dating profile (Study 4). Importantly, across all studies we observed that participants' own conspiracy beliefs moderated the association between others' conspiracy beliefs and relationship satisfaction, revealing a similarity–dissimilarity pattern: although the association was negative among participants with weaker conspiracy beliefs, we observed signals of reversal among participants with stronger conspiracy beliefs. Our findings further suggest that a process of attitudinal distancing (among other relational changes) could explain why perceived conspiracy beliefs negatively predicted relationship satisfaction. Taken together, this research provides evidence that conspiracy beliefs have the potential to harm interpersonal relationships.

The present research empirically examines how different types of coping strategies are associated with belief in conspiracy theories. Conspiracy beliefs have been linked to the frustration of basic needs and seem to increase during major world events that evoke stress. Thus, we hypothesized that they may serve as a psychological response to maladaptive coping strategies. This hypothesis was tested among British participants and conceptually replicated across three studies. Cross-sectionally, we examined coping strategies (i.e., self-sufficient, social-support, avoidance, and religious) and belief in a specific conspiracy theory (Study 1, n = 199) and belief in general notions of conspiracy (Study 2, n = 411). In Study 3 (n = 398), we experimentally primed different coping styles via a mnemonic recollection procedure and measured belief in notions of conspiracy. Avoidance coping (recognized as being maladaptive and leading to at least temporary disengagement and abandonment of goal-related behaviours) positively predicted belief in conspiracy theories (Studies 1 and 2). In Study 3, priming avoidance coping (vs. self-sufficient coping or no coping strategy) significantly increased belief in conspiracy theories. These findings suggest that using maladaptive coping strategies (either dispositional or situationally induced) may foster conspiracy beliefs.

The prevalence of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 in the wide-open social media environment has raised considerable concerns about the adverse effects of believing such theories. The previous work showed that skepticism is negatively associated with acceptance of media content. However, this association has yet to be investigated between skepticism towards content on social media and conviction of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Furthermore, this association can be a function of social media users’ dark triad traits comprising Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. A convenient sample of 439 Malaysian young adult social media users was recruited to complete the survey. Results showed that skepticism has a negative relationship with belief in conspiracy theories about COVID-19. However, the strength of the relationship is varied depending on respondents’ Machiavellianism and narcissism levels. The negative association between skepticism and belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories is weaker for individuals with high scores on Machiavellianism. High and moderate scores on narcissism were also found to diminish the negative relationship of skepticism with COVID-19 conspiracy ideation. The results yield implications for enhancing healthy skepticism to mitigate belief in conspiracy theories promulgated on social media. Nonetheless, Machiavellianism and narcissism appeared to weaken the power of skepticism on conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy theories flourished during the COVID-19 outbreak. The present study takes a cross-national comparative perspective to understand the relationships among people's national identities, trust in institutions, and their beliefs in COVID-19 origin conspiracy theories blaming other nations. Four cross-national surveys were conducted in China, South Korea, Spain, and the United States with a total of 1642 respondents. The results revealed that two dimensions of national identities—national hubris and restrictive views of legitimate membership—are positively related to beliefs in conspiracy theories targeting other nations. This relationship was supported in three countries with different social, political, historical, and cultural contexts and diverse meanings attached to national identities. Also, people's trust in mainstream media, governments, and scientists was found to moderate the relationships between national identities and beliefs in conspiracy theories; yet, this moderating effect was not consistent across the selected nations.

Believing in conspiracy theories is a major problem, especially in the face of a pandemic, as these constitute a significant obstacle to public health policies, like the use of masks and vaccination. Indeed, during the COVID-19 pandemic, several ungrounded explanations regarding the origin of the virus or the effects of vaccinations have been rising, leading to vaccination hesitancy or refusal which poses as a threat to public health. Recent studies have shown that in the core of conspiracy theories lies a moral evaluation component; one that triggers a moral reasoning which reinforces the conspiracy itself. To gain a better understanding of how conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 affect public health containment behaviors and policy support via morality-relevant variables, we analysed comprehensive data from the International Collaboration on the Social & Moral Psychology (ICSMP) of COVID-19, consisting of 49.965 participants across 67 countries. We particularly explored the mediating role of two levels of morality: individual and group-based morality. Results show that believing in conspiracy theories reduces adoption of containment health-related behaviors and policy support of public health measures, but moral identity and morality-as-cooperation significantly mediate this relationship. This means that beliefs in conspiracy theories do not simply constitute antecedents of cognitive biases or failures, nor maladaptive behaviors based on personality traits, but are morally infused and should be dealt as such. Based on our findings, we further discuss the psychological, moral, and political implications of endorsement of conspiracy theories in the era of the pandemic.