Are societies in conflict more susceptible to believe in COVID-19 conspiracy theories? A 66 nation study
Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology
; : No Pagination Specified, 2022.
Article
in English
| APA PsycInfo | ID: covidwho-2262564
ABSTRACT
Conspiracy theories widely influence our social and political lives. A recent example is the broad impact such theories had on government's efforts to halt the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In that context, public's compliance and willingness to get vaccinated was found to be substantially and negatively affected by the belief in conspiracy theories, among various factors. In the present study, we tested whether some countries are more susceptible to conspiracy theories than others. We examined, for the first time, the idea that the degree of intensity of conflict predicts the degree of belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. A multilevel analysis across 66 countries (N = 46,450) demonstrated that people living in countries with higher conflict intensity tended to be more susceptible to COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs. These findings are the first large-scale comparative evidence of the profound psychological effects of conflicts on the involved societies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement The belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories has severe implications on public's health. Thus, it is important to better understand the reasons behind such beliefs. The present study provides new information which helps to better understand the contexts in which conspiracy belief thrive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
conflict; COVID-19; cross-national; conspiracy theories; degree of belief, *Adult Attitudes, *Conflict, *covid-19, Social Processes & Social Issues [2900], Human Male Female Adulthood (18 yrs & older), Argentina; Australia; Austria; Belgium; Bangladesh; Brazil; Bolivia; Bulgaria; Chile; China; Colombia; Canada; Costa Rica; Croatia; Cuba; Denmark; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; El Salvador; Finland; France; Ghana; Germany; Greece; Guatemala; Honduras; Hu
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
APA PsycInfo
Language:
English
Journal:
Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS