From Psychological Distress and Distrust to Conspiracy Beliefs: A Constructivist Study of Negative Phenomena of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Conspiracy beliefs (CBs) occured on a large scale during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research has identified numerous factors associated with CBs at both the individual level (e.g., cognitive bias, distress) and the social level (e.g., distrust). However, emphasizing either individual or social factors leads to incompatible accounts of CBs. Based on the framework of personal construct psychology, we propose an integrative account of CBs. A precursor of CBs is a distressing situation (e.g., the pandemic) that invalidates individuals’ construct systems. If a person prevents his or her construct system from being invalidated in a hostile way (i.e., extorts its validity), he or she becomes more skeptical and suspicious. At the social level, these processes are intensified by a decrease in sociality, which is associated with distrust and leads to the elaboration of CBs. Using a mixed-design approach, we conducted a study involving a sample of 23 participants who endorsed CBs to varying degrees. We found that participants with elaborated CBs experienced distress at the onset of the pandemic. They also exhibited the strategy of hostility and developed distrustful relationships with people who expressed opposing opinions about the pandemic. The results indicate that hostility could be the key process underlying CBs.