| Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.38 MB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The COVID-19 pandemic is a worlwide threat to public health and the global economy. The climate of fear uncertainty associated with the pandemic has fostered the emergence of a wide-range of COVID-19 conspiracy theories that has the potential to shape public opinion and hinder the effective dissemination of valid information. Beliefs in conspiracy theories has been associated with maladaptive personality traits such as schizotypy and paranoia, as well as other non-psychotic psychological characteristics (e.g., social isolation, stress). The current study aimed to examine the association within the community, while also addressing the role of sociodemographic information, psychological outcomes (e.g., stress, affective states) and other pandemic-related factos (e.g., confinement conditions/behaviors). Our results suggest that psychotic-like experiences are associated with beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, particularly perceptual abnormalities and persecutory ideation. Moreover, increased health-related concerns and reduced education levels also seem to be liability factors for these conspiracy beliefs. These results add importante insights into how the adherence to illogical and erroneous disease-related arguments may be contingent to proneness to psychotic-like experiences. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are yet another major challenge that governments and and policy makers must contemplate when defining strategic directions to manage the current and future pandemics.
Description
Keywords
COVID-19 Pandemic Confinement Conspiracy theories Psychosis