According to a new study, those who think the COVID-19 epidemic was a hoax are more likely to believe in various other conspiracy theories.
According to a recent study, persons who believe in COVID-19 conspiracies may later be more likely to believe in other conspiracies.
The researchers hypothesized that believing that China intentionally released or engineered the COVID-19 virus for evil purposes, or that the number of COVID-19 deaths was exaggerated, is a gateway drug to other conspiracy theories. Their findings were published on October 26 in the journal PLOS One(opens in new tab).
According to conspiracy theories, covert organizations are orchestrating elaborate operations that have an impact on the general public. They range from the outlandish and unsubstantiated notion that the moon landing was staged to the belief that aliens on UFOs make crop circles.
In light of this, the research authors hypothesized that the COVID-19 epidemic provided the ideal setting for the emergence of conspiracy theories.
The researchers concluded in their study that “the broad harm generated by the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened people’s worry, uncertainty, and feelings of powerlessness, and has created friction amongst members of different social groups.” “Such circumstances create an almost ideal environment for the spread of conspiracy ideas.”
The researchers in the latest study examined two questionnaires. In the first, they conducted a survey of about 500 Americans in June 2020, questioning respondents about their conspiracy theories in general and their belief in the COVID-19 conspiracy theories in particular. The participants were then followed up with six months later by the study’s authors.
Participants who thought “COVID-19 was deliberately introduced into the world for dark purposes” or that “the severity of COVID-19 was exaggerated” were more likely to think “some UFO sightings and rumors are planned or staged in order to distract the public from real alien contact” or to hold other conspiracy theories. Even after the researchers took into account initial political inclination, this association persisted.
As a proxy for their propensity to believe in conspiracy theories, the researchers asked more than 2,000 people in the U.K. to rate how much they agreed with the following statement: “I think that many very important things happen in the world, which the public is never informed.” They then asked participants whether they agreed with COVID-19 conspiracy ideas at a later period.
The first question was then posed to participants in a series of waves across time. Similar to the first poll, acceptance of COVID-19 conspiracy theories predicted an increase in general conspiracy beliefs in the future.
The results confirm that COVID-19 conspiracy theories can serve as a springboard for other bizarre ideas, but more investigation is needed to determine whether other conspiracy theories, like the idea that the 9/11 events were staged, have the same effect, according to the study’s authors.
