Abstract
The current COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by the circulation of an unprecedented amount of “polluted” information, especially in the social media environment, among which are false narratives and conspiracy theories about both the pandemic and vaccination against COVID-19. The effects of such questionable information primarily concern the lack of compliance with restrictive measures and a negative attitude towards vaccination campaigns, as well as more complex social effects, such as street protests or distrust in governments and authorities in general. Even though there is a lot of scholarly attention given to these narratives in many countries, research about the profile of people who are more prone to believe or spread them is rather scarce. In this context, we investigate the role of age, compared with other socio-demographic factors (such as education and religiosity), as well as the role of the media (the frequency of news consumption, the perceived usefulness of social media, and the perceived incidence of fake information about the virus in the media) and the critical thinking disposition of people who tend to believe such misleading narratives. To address these issues, we conducted a national survey (N = 945) in April 2021 in Romania. Using a hierarchical OLS regression model, we found that people who perceive higher incidence of fake news (ß = 0.33, p < 0.001), find social media platforms more useful (ß = 0.13, p < 0.001), have lower education (ß = −0.17, p < 0.001), and have higher levels of religiosity (ß = 0.08, p < 0.05) are more prone to believe COVID-19-related misleading narratives. At the same time, the frequency of news consumption (regardless of the type of media), critical thinking disposition, and age do not play a significant role in the profile of the believer in conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. Somewhat surprisingly, age does not play a role in predicting belief in conspiracy theories, even though there are studies that suggest that older people are more prone to believe conspiracy narratives. As far as media is concerned, the frequency of news media consumption does not significantly differ for believers and non-believers. We discuss these results within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
The worldwide pandemic that started two years ago has led, among other things, to a surge in news consumption and an increased demand for up-to-date, accurate content about coronavirus and the social, economic, political, even psychological implications it has triggered globally
Given the high proliferation of conspiracy theories about vaccines and vaccination within the current media environment [93], we asked respondents to judge seven statements related to prominent narratives that were spread in the media during the COVID-19 pandemic claiming that the vaccination of children is dangerous and is kept secret, that the link between vaccines and autism is kept secret, that people are being fooled about the effectiveness and the safety of vaccines, that data on vaccine safety and effectiveness are often fabricated, and that pharmaceutical companies hide the dangers of vaccines
We found that people’s perceptions about the incidence of fake news on COVID-19 topics, the usefulness of SNS, along with education and religiosity are significant predictors of belief in conspiracy theories, while the frequency of COVID-19 news consumption from websites, SNS, and IM apps, critical thinking disposition, and age do not play a significant role in the profile of the believer in such narratives
Summary
The worldwide pandemic that started two years ago has led, among other things, to a surge in news consumption and an increased demand for up-to-date, accurate (online) content about coronavirus and the social, economic, political, even psychological implications it has triggered globally. The parallel “infodemic” accompanying the original epidemic has been compared to the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s intra-community transmission [3], giving rise to numberless rumors, misleading facts, and fake news regarding the coronavirus situation that have constantly circulated online and that show no sign of halting soon. Conspiracy theories regarding the pandemic in general and vaccination campaigns aimed at containing the virus have become commonplace in the digital ecosystem [4]. Given the current context and building on previous research, we argue that these effects primarily concern an individuals’ resistance to accepting protective measures [6] and a rather negative attitude towards vaccination and immunization campaigns [7,8], as well as other far-reaching effects, such as generalized panic, high levels of societal anxiety [9], street protests, or distrust in governments, mainstream politics, and official institutions [10]
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