EXAMINING THE ROLE OF COVID-19 CONSPIRACY BELIEFS IN PREDICTING VACCINATION INTENTIONS, PREVENTIVE BEHAVIOR AND WILLINGNESS TO SHARE OPINIONS ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS

• Authors: Zelić Žan , Berič Martin , Kobal Grum Darja
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The primary aim of our study was to examine the role of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs in predicting outcomes that could potentially worsen the course of the pandemic: preventive behaviour, vaccination intentions and willingness to share COVID-19 related opinions. Structural equation modelling was performed on a Slovenian sample (N = 490). Analysis showed that COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs predicted all three health-related outcomes when sociodemographic variables were controlled for. Further, a perceived coronavirus threat was identified as an important mediating factor between conspiracy beliefs, preventive behaviour and vaccination intentions. Conspiracy beliefs were also positively associated with age, female gender, religiosity, and share of COVID-19 information from social media, while they were negatively associated with level of education. The results suggest that COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs may be an important barrier to achieving pandemic management goals and highlight some risk factors for their occurrence.

Keywords

EN

COVID-19; CONSPIRACY; VACCINATION

• Publisher: Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Studia Psychologica
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 64
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 136 – 153

Contributors

author

Zelić Žan

• Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6991-4554

author

Berič Martin

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7736-5791

author

Kobal Grum Darja

• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7868-7808

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/sp.2022.01.844