Science may be failing to convince a significant number of people about COVID-19 scientific facts and needed public health measures. Individual and social factors are behind believing conspiracy theories. Adults (N = 1001) were asked to rate their beliefs in various conspiracy theories circulating in social media, rate their psychological distress relating to COVID-19, rate their trust in science to solve COVID-19 problems, and rate their willingness to adhere to measures regarding social distancing and quarantine. The findings showed conspiracy theories are widely believed even among highly educated individuals. Stronger conspiracy theory beliefs predicted science mistrust and unwillingness to adhere to public health measures. Psychological distress increased conspiracy beliefs. Recommendations, stemming from the findings, for reducing such beliefs and better serve public health are discussed.
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Constantinou et al. (2020) studied this question.