Conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 leading to riskier behavior and disapproval of national infection prevention policies: The mediating effects of a disregard for infection risk

DOI Web Site 17 References Open Access

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • COVID-19に関する陰謀信念がもたらす感染防止政策の否定と感染リスク行動：感染リスク軽視の媒介的影響

Description

<p>There are many conspiracy theories about the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Belief in these conspiracy theories may lead people to underestimate the risk of COVID-19 and adopt behaviors that increase their risk of infection. Consequently, they may not support national infection prevention policies. In study 1, we administered a survey in January 2021 and analyzed the data using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed the validity of the following hypothesized model: “Conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 → disregard for infection risk → individual behavior that increases infection risk and disapproval of national infection prevention policies.” In study 2, a longitudinal survey was disseminated to the respondents of study 1 in January 2022. The results were similar to those obtained with SEM in study 1. Analysis of the longitudinal data based on simultaneous effects and cross-lagged models revealed the following causal relationship: “Conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 → underestimation of infection risk → infection prevention”. These results suggest that conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 may have a disruptive effect on governments’ infectious disease control policies.</p>

Journal

References(17)*help

See more

Related Projects

See more

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top