The conspiracy hoax? Testing key hypotheses about the correlates of generic beliefs in conspiracy theories during the <scp>COVID</scp> ‐19 pandemic

Conspiracy beliefs receive unprecedented public attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. This may be because they could directly affect own and others’ health and economic outcomes due to detrimental effects on preventive behaviour. We aimed to (a) test key hypotheses on the correlates of generic beliefs in conspiracy theories in this high-relevance real-life setting, (b) examine the role of trust in mediating effects on preventive behaviour, and (c) thereby inform the public health response. Using cross-sectional data (N=1,013) from the German COVID-19 monitoring we tested the relationships between conspiracy beliefs and (a) level of education, (b) social and economic worries, (c) trust in media, the government, public health institutions, and science, and (d) hygiene-related and contact-related preventive behaviour. Results were in line with expectations apart from null findings for the relationships with social worries and hygiene-related preventive behaviour. Trust in government mediated effects of conspiracy beliefs on contact-related preventive behaviour.
This is a preprint of: Bruder, M., & Kunert, L. (2021). The conspiracy hoax? Testing key hypotheses about the correlates of generic beliefs in conspiracy theories during the COVID‐19 pandemic. International Journal of Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijop.12769