Summarising data and factors associated with COVID-19 related conspiracy theories in the first year of the pandemic: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

BMC Psychology

卷:10

Research

George Tsitsas¹  Andreas S. Triantafyllis²  Elena Dragioti³  Ayesha Ahmad⁴  Eugenia Romano⁵  Ruimin Ma⁵  Konstantinos Tsamakis⁶  Christoph Mueller⁷  Brendon Stubbs⁷  Dimitrios Tsiptsios⁸ 

[1] Counselling Centre, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece;

[2] Department of Cardiology, Asklepeion General Hospital Athens, Athens, Greece;

[3] Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences, Pain and Rehabilitation Centre, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden;

[4] Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education, St George’s University of London, London, UK;

[5] Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London, London, UK;

[6] Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London, London, UK;Second Department of Psychiatry, Attikon University General Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece;Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education, St George’s University of London, London, UK;

[7] Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London, London, UK;South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, Denmark Hill, London, UK;

[8] Neurology Department, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece;

关键词: Conspiracy theories;    Beliefs;    COVID-19;    Pandemic;    First year;    Public health;    Misinformation;    Infodemic;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s40359-022-00959-6

 received in 2022-06-14, accepted in 2022-10-20,  发布年份 2022

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Conspiracy theories can have particularly harmful effects by negatively shaping health-related behaviours. A significant number of COVID-19 specific conspiracy theories emerged in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic outbreak. The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature on conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 during the first year of the pandemic (2020), to identify their prevalence, their determinants and their public health consequences. A comprehensive literature search was carried out in PubMed and PsycINFO to detect all studies examining any conspiracy theory related to COVID-19 between January 1st 2020, and January 10th 2021. Forty-three studies were included with a total of 61,809 participants. Between 0.4 and 82.7% of participants agreed with at least one conspiracy belief. Certain sociodemographic factors (young age, female gender, being non-white, lower socioeconomic status), psychological aspects (pessimism, blaming others, anger) and other qualities (political conservatism, religiosity, mistrust in science and using social media as source of information) were associated with increased acceptance of conspiracy theories. Conspiracy beliefs led to harmful health-related behaviours and posed a serious public health threat. Large-scale collaborations between governments and healthcare organizations are needed to curb the spread of conspiracy theories and their adverse consequences.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2022

【 图 表 】

Fig. 8

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