Structural Validation of Conspiracy Beliefs Toward Newly Developed COVID-19 Vaccines

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, conspiracy beliefs posed major barriers to vaccination acceptance. To comprehensively assess conspiracy beliefs, we added 13 literature-based items to the 3 Conspiracy R items of the 7C scale on vaccination readiness. N = 500 adults (18 to 88 years) answered the 7C scale and the Conspiracy R items in an online survey (April 2022 to March 2023). Then we conducted ordinal confirmatory factor analysis. For 15 of the 16 Conspiracy R items, a joint analysis with five facets of the 7C scale revealed a three-dimensional Conspiracy R structure ( Vaccine-related suspicion R , Denial of necessity R , Paranoiac suspicion of manipulation R , ω = .956/.746/.897; CFI = .988; SRMR = .031) as best fitting. While Vaccine-related suspicion R correlates with Confidence R at r = .959, Denial of necessity R and Paranoiac suspicion of manipulation R are more distinct ( r = .820, .832). Age and school education correlate most strongly with Paranoiac suspicion of manipulation R ( r = –.211, .378). Vaccine-related suspicion R and Paranoiac suspicion of manipulation R predict vaccination status and attitudes toward vaccination and the application of COVID-19 protective measures. By broadening the indicator pool and identifying subdimensions, vaccination-related conspiracy-beliefs can be assessed in a more differentiated and reliably manner. The proposed assessment should be validated in further areas in which conspiracy beliefs influence vaccination-related attitudes and decision-making.