Searching for General Model of Conspiracy Theories and Its Implication for Public Health Policy: Analysis of the Impacts of Political, Psychological, Structural Factors on Conspiracy Beliefs about the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Seoyong Kim,Sunhee Kim

doi:10.3390/ijerph18010266

Abstract

Along with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, beliefs in conspiracy theories are spreading within and across countries. This study aims to analyze predictors of beliefs in conspiracy theories. Because previous studies have emphasized only specific political, psychological, or structural factors or variables, this study constructs an integrated analytical model that includes all three factors. We analyze data from a large-scale survey of Koreans (N = 1525) and find several results. First, political, psychological, and structural factors influence beliefs in conspiracy theories. Second, when we examine the specific influences of the variables, we find that authoritarianism, support for minority parties, religiosity, trust in SNS (social networking services), perceived risk, anxiety, negative emotions, blame attribution, the quantity of information, health status, and health after COVID-19, all positively influence beliefs in conspiracy theories. Conversely, support for President Moon Jae-In’s government, Christianity, trust in the government, perceived control, analytic thinking, knowledge, the quality of information, and gender, all negatively impact these beliefs. Among the predictors, the quality of information, health status, support for President Moon Jae-In’s government, perceived risk, and anxiety have the most decisive impacts on beliefs in conspiracy theories.

Highlights

As COVID-19 spreads, conspiracy theories are spreading internationally and within certain countries
This study examines how political, psychological, and social structural factors, which consists of 21 variables, impact on beliefs in conspiracy theories related to COVID-19
This study focuses on 19 hypotheses related to beliefs in conspiracy theories, and the variables based on these hypotheses can be classified as political, psychological, or structural factors

Summary

Introduction

As COVID-19 spreads, conspiracy theories are spreading internationally and within certain countries. Kennedy was assassinated by the Central Intelligence Agency [3]. In the U.S, national opinion polls show that nearly 90% of Americans think that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in killing John F. Stempel et al [5] reported that nearly one-third of American respondents accepted the theory that federal officials either facilitated the September 11th attacks or did nothing to stop them so that they could wage war in the Middle East. In Korea, prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, there existed political conflicts between conservative and progressive sectors. Such conflicts have manifested as various conspiracy theories after the outbreak of COVID-19. On Pen and Mike TV, a YouTuber channel, a conservative YouTuber (Jeong Gyu-jae) said, “I have doubts whether

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