Finding someone to blame: The link between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, prejudice, support for violence, and other negative social outcomes

Abstract

One of the appeals of conspiracy theories in times of crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, is that they provide a scapegoat – someone to blame for what has happened. By doing this, they increase distrust, negative feelings, and even hostility toward implicated actors, whether those are powerful social outgroups or one’s own government representatives. We report two studies to examine such social consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. In Study 1 (N = 501), we showed the distinct pattern of relationships between China-specific and generic COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and prejudice and discrimination toward three social groups associated with the pandemic. In Study 2 (N = 1024), lowered trust in government regulations and increased hostility associated with the COVID-19 and generic conspiracy beliefs predicted justification of and willingness to engage in non-compliance with government regulations, violent attacks on 5G masts, and anti-government protests. Also, across both studies, increased exposure to information about COVID-19 was associated with endorsing fewer conspiracy theories, but it also brought about stronger feelings of anxiety and lack of control, which in turn contributed to higher conspiracy belief. We highlight the potential social problems associated with the wide-spread COVID-19 conspiracy theories as well as potential solutions to counteract them.

The Year of Enduring COVID-19: Typology of Attitudes Displayed by Health Care Professionals in Ukraine

“…The standpoint "I believe in the artificial origin of the virus" covers most of the interviews conducted with the representatives of the health care domain. Sometimes this standpoint is just expressed in a pointblank manner, with no arguments: "that was all done on purpose: the virus was invented" (3) 1, 2 , "I think that coronavirus is still of artificial origin" (the word "still" shows that the person has been contemplating over the problem-L. K.'s comment) (16), "planned virus, biological weapons aimed to reduce population. Genocide.…”

“…The unambiguous standpoint "I support and assess it positively" was voiced in the following versions: "I think that everything possible is being done in this country to quickly combat the disease" (10), "Our state has introduced certain measures to fight COVID-19 and ensure its prevention" (16). In some cases, the informants mentioned timeliness and efficiency of the first lockdown, in particular (5).…”

“…But these are the so called expected complications. The informants speak about the psychological burden-it was psychologically difficult to simultaneously stand both "lack of information" on COVID-10: "what COVID-19 is, how to treat it, how to diagnose it, what complication may arise" (16), and excess of media noises: "the most complicated period for me was the time of mass information, TV, Internet just attacking our minds with this problem. As for me, that was a direct attack on our minds" (13).…”

“…Psychological burden of the need for specific communication with patients has also been a problem for doctors: "besides being a doctor, you had to become a psychologist for the patient and his/her relatives to reduce their anxiety and concerns related to the new COVID-19 challenge at least to a certain extent" (16). Doctors are recording the changes in the attitude of patients to them-lack of sincere sparkle in patients' eyes and indirect accusations of the COVID-19 spread.…”

Early COVID-19 Government Communication Is Associated With Reduced Interest in the QAnon Conspiracy Theory

“…People ‘fill in the gaps’ with their own explanations as a way of relieving feeling of anxiety and stress ( Douglas et al, 2017 )—even going as far as assigning blame or responsibility to certain individuals or groups to fulfil their epistemic need for an explanation, with the scapegoating of Jews during the Black Death being a salient example. We thus contribute to a nascent literature analysing interest and beliefs in conspiracy theories in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic (see, for example, Cassese et al, 2020 ; Enders et al, 2020 ; Imhoff and Lamberty, 2020 ; Miller, 2020 ; Sternisko et al, 2020 ; Stoica and Umbreș, 2020 ; Uscinski et al, 2020 ; Chan et al, 2021 ; Šrol et al, 2021 ).…”