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Testing the underlying structure of unfounded beliefs about COVID-19 around the world

Testing the underlying structure of unfounded beliefs about COVID-19 around the world
Testing the underlying structure of unfounded beliefs about COVID-19 around the world

Unfounded—conspiracy and health—beliefs about COVID-19 have accompanied the pandemic worldwide. Here, we examined cross-nationally the structure and correlates of these beliefs with an 8-item scale, using a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. We obtained a two-factor model of unfounded (conspiracy and health) beliefs with good internal structure (average CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.04), but a high correlation between the two factors (average latent factor correlation = 0.57). This model was replicable across 50 countries (total N = 13,579), as evidenced by metric invariance between countries (CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.06, SRMS = 0.07) as well as scalar invariance across genders (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03) and educational levels (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03). Also, lower levels of education, more fear of COVID-19, and more cynicism were weakly associated with stronger conspiracy and health beliefs. The study contributes to knowledge about the structure of unfounded beliefs, and reveals the potential relevance of affective (i.e., fear of COVID-19) and cognitive (i.e., cynicism) factors along with demographics, in endorsing such beliefs. In summary, we obtained cross-cultural evidence for the distinctiveness of unfounded conspiracy and health beliefs about COVID-19 in terms of their structure and correlates.

COVID-19, Conspiracy beliefs, Cross-cultural, Health beliefs, Unfounded beliefs, health beliefs, cross-cultural, conspiracy beliefs
1354-6783
Brzóska, Paweł
8daff10c-2d7f-4f4a-878f-0c02e7af6ca8
Magdalena, Żemojtel-Piotrowska
2e3fad1c-559f-43fa-958c-e32c2ffb1b89
Jaroslaw, Piotrowski
04fbc7e1-3ab2-4552-bef5-9bbb0fcb8d25
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2
et al.
Brzóska, Paweł
8daff10c-2d7f-4f4a-878f-0c02e7af6ca8
Magdalena, Żemojtel-Piotrowska
2e3fad1c-559f-43fa-958c-e32c2ffb1b89
Jaroslaw, Piotrowski
04fbc7e1-3ab2-4552-bef5-9bbb0fcb8d25
Sedikides, Constantine
9d45e66d-75bb-44de-87d7-21fd553812c2

Brzóska, Paweł, Magdalena, Żemojtel-Piotrowska and Jaroslaw, Piotrowski , et al. (2023) Testing the underlying structure of unfounded beliefs about COVID-19 around the world. Thinking and Reasoning. (doi:10.1080/13546783.2023.2259539).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Unfounded—conspiracy and health—beliefs about COVID-19 have accompanied the pandemic worldwide. Here, we examined cross-nationally the structure and correlates of these beliefs with an 8-item scale, using a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. We obtained a two-factor model of unfounded (conspiracy and health) beliefs with good internal structure (average CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.04), but a high correlation between the two factors (average latent factor correlation = 0.57). This model was replicable across 50 countries (total N = 13,579), as evidenced by metric invariance between countries (CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.06, SRMS = 0.07) as well as scalar invariance across genders (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03) and educational levels (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03). Also, lower levels of education, more fear of COVID-19, and more cynicism were weakly associated with stronger conspiracy and health beliefs. The study contributes to knowledge about the structure of unfounded beliefs, and reveals the potential relevance of affective (i.e., fear of COVID-19) and cognitive (i.e., cynicism) factors along with demographics, in endorsing such beliefs. In summary, we obtained cross-cultural evidence for the distinctiveness of unfounded conspiracy and health beliefs about COVID-19 in terms of their structure and correlates.

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Brzóska et al., 2023, Thinking and Reasoning - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 25 June 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 September 2023
Published date: 28 September 2023
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords: COVID-19, Conspiracy beliefs, Cross-cultural, Health beliefs, Unfounded beliefs, health beliefs, cross-cultural, conspiracy beliefs

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 482382
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/482382
ISSN: 1354-6783
PURE UUID: 7458974c-887a-46d4-9cd8-c8d720551448
ORCID for Constantine Sedikides: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4036-889X

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Date deposited: 28 Sep 2023 16:44
Last modified: 25 Jun 2024 04:01

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Contributors

Author: Paweł Brzóska
Author: Żemojtel-Piotrowska Magdalena
Author: Piotrowski Jaroslaw
Corporate Author: et al.

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