2Center for Social and Cultural Psychology, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
3Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FRS), Bruxelles, Belgium
4EA1285 Laboratoire de Psychologie, Cognition, Comportement, Communication (LP3C), University of Rennes, Rennes, France
Many conspiracy theories appeared along with the COVID-19 pandemic. Since it is documented that conspiracy theories negatively affect vaccination intentions, these beliefs might become a crucial matter in the near future. We conducted two cross-sectional studies examining the relationship between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, vaccine attitudes, and the intention to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when a vaccine becomes available. We also examined how these beliefs predicted support for a controversial medical treatment, namely, chloroquine. In an exploratory study 1 (N = 409), two subdimensions of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs were associated with negative attitudes toward vaccine science. These results were partly replicated and extended in a pre-registered study 2 (N = 396). Moreover, we found that COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs (among which, conspiracy beliefs about chloroquine), as well as a conspiracy mentality (i.e., predisposition to believe in conspiracy theories) negatively predicted participants’ intentions to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the future. Lastly, conspiracy beliefs predicted support for chloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19. Interestingly, none of the conspiracy beliefs referred to the dangers of the vaccines. Implications for the pandemic and potential responses are discussed.
mce-anchor Introduction
Conspiracy theories can be defined as “attempts to explain the ultimate causes of significant social and political events and circumstances with claims of secret plots by two or more powerful actors” (Douglas et al., 2019, p. 4). These beliefs tend to appear in social crisis situations, which are times of heightened collective uncertainty and fear (van Prooijen and Douglas, 2017). It has been proposed that these beliefs are a response to psychological needs (Douglas et al., 2017), and might constitute attempts to understand complex, otherwise hardly understandable and predictable threatening situations (Franks et al., 2013). Hence, it is not surprising that conspiracy beliefs have flourished with the COVID-19 pandemic, and that medical misinformation spreads at a spectacular rate (Kouzy et al., 2020). Interestingly, conspiracy beliefs also surged during the 1918–1919 Spanish flu pandemic (Spinney, 2017) and the 2009 H1N1 outbreak (Bangerter et al., 2012).
Conspiracy beliefs may also influence the course of a crisis that initially favored their appearance. Indeed, conspiracy beliefs have consequences, notably in the health domain (van Prooijen and van Douglas, 2018). For example, exposure to anti-vaccine conspiracy theories decreases vaccination intention (Jolley and Douglas, 2014). This relation is not limited to conspiracy theories about vaccines, as authors have found that the endorsement of “classic” conspiracy beliefs unrelated to vaccination (e.g., about JFK, the Moon Landing) is also associated with negative attitudes toward vaccines (Lewandowsky et al., 2013).
This might be explained by the fact that the endorsement of some conspiracy beliefs is a powerful predictor of the endorsement of others, even when they are seemingly unrelated (e.g., Goertzel, 1994; Swami et al., 2011). As a result, it has been proposed that conspiracy beliefs are associated with a generic belief system, which has been given names such as “monological belief system” (Goertzel, 1994), or “conspiracy mentality” (Moscovici, 1987). Overall, there might be a negative relation between conspiracy beliefs and attitude toward scientific medicine, Lamberty and Imhoff (2018) have shown that conspiracy mentality was associated with a preference for alternative medicines over evidence based, biomedical treatments.
Paul Bertin1*,
Kenzo Nera2,3 and
Sylvain Delouvée4
