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

Brzóska P. Żemojtel-Piotrowska M. Piotrowski J. Nowak B. Jonason P.K. Sedikides C. Adamovic M. Atitsogbe K.A. Ahmed O. Azam U. Bălțătescu S. Bochaver K. Bolatov A. Bonato M. Counted V. Chaleeraktrakoon T. Ramos-Diaz J. Dragova-Koleva S. Eldesoki W.L.M. Esteves C.S. Gouveia V.V. Perez de Leon P. Iliško D. Datu J.A.D. Jia F. Jovanović V. Jukić T. Khachatryan N. Kovacs M. Lifshin U. Larzabal Fernandez A. Liik K. Malik S. Moon C. Muehlbacher S. Najafi R. Oruç E. Park J. Šolcová I.P. Ardi R. Ridic O. Ridic G. Said Y.I. Starc A. Stefenel D. Trà K.T.T. Tiliouine H. Tomšik R. Torres-Marin J. Umeh C.S. Wills-Herrera E. Wlodarczyk A. Vally Z. Yahiiaiev I.
2024 Taylor and Francis Ltd.

Thinking and Reasoning
2024 #30 Issue 2 301 - 326 pp.

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.

conspiracy beliefs , COVID-19 , cross-cultural , health beliefs , Unfounded beliefs

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Institute of Psychology, University of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, Warszawa, Poland
University of Padua, Padova, Italy
School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
King’s College London, United Kingdom
University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh
Department of Psychology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania
Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, Russian Federation
School of Medicine, Astana Medical University, University Medical Center, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padova, Italy
College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, United States
Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand
Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Privada del Norte, Trujillo, Peru
Department of Cognitive Science and Psychology, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria
Al Jouf University, Al Qurayyat, Saudi Arabia
Menoufia University, Al-Minufya, Egypt
Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics, Católica Lisbon Research Unit in Business and Economics, Lisboa, Portugal
Federal University of Paraiba, Joao Pessoa, Brazil
Universidad Católica del Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay
Institute of Humanities and Societal Sciences, Daugavpils University, Daugavpils, Latvia
Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Department of Psychology, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, United States
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
Medical Faculty - Department of Internal Medicine Josip Juraj Strossmayer University, Osijek, Croatia
Department of Personality Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy and Psychology, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia
Institute of Intercultural Psychology and Education, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
Reichman University (IDC Herzliya), Herzliya, Israel
Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU), Spain
Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan
Institute for the Study of Power, Crime, and Society, Department of Law and Criminology, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom
Department of Psychology and Psychodynamics, Division of Work, Organizational, and Economic Psychology, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems, Austria
University of Padova, Italy
Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University, Bilecik, Turkey
Nagoya University of Business and Commerce School, Nagoy, Japan
Czech Academy of Sciences, Praha, Czech Republic
Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia
International University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
University of Economics for Management, Mannheim, Germany
Soran University, Soran, Iraq
University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania
Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
Université Oran2 Mohamed Ben Ahmed, Algeria, Algeria
Research Institute for Child Psychology and Pathopsychology, Bratislava, Slovakia
Department of Research Methods in Behavioral Sciences, University of Granada, Granada, Spain
University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria
Los Andes University, Bogota, Colombia
Escuela de Psicología, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile
Department of Clinical Psychology, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine

Institute of Psychology
University of Padua
School of Psychology
King’s College London
University of Lausanne
University of Chittagong
Department of Psychology
University of Oradea
Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis
School of Medicine
Department of General Psychology
College of Health and Behavioral Sciences
Thammasat University
Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud
Department of Cognitive Science and Psychology
Al Jouf University
Menoufia University
Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Federal University of Paraiba
Universidad Católica del Uruguay
Institute of Humanities and Societal Sciences
Education University of Hong Kong
Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Medical Faculty - Department of Internal Medicine Josip Juraj Strossmayer University
Department of Personality Psychology
Institute of Intercultural Psychology and Education
Reichman University (IDC Herzliya)
Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU)
Tallinn University
University of Sargodha
Institute for the Study of Power
Department of Psychology and Psychodynamics
University of Padova
Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University
Nagoya University of Business and Commerce School
Czech Academy of Sciences
Universitas Airlangga
International University of Sarajevo
University of Economics for Management
Soran University
University of Ljubljana
Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu
Ho Chi Minh City University of Education
Université Oran2 Mohamed Ben Ahmed
Research Institute for Child Psychology and Pathopsychology
Department of Research Methods in Behavioral Sciences
University of Lagos
Los Andes University
Escuela de Psicología
Department of Clinical Psychology
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

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