Laboratoire de Psychologie: Cognition, Comportement, Communication, University of Rennes 2, France.
Institut de Recherche Médias, Cultures, Communication et Numérique, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, France.
Br J Health Psychol. 2020 Nov;25(4):957-980. doi: 10.1111/bjhp.12449. Epub 2020 Jun 25.
This research examined how conspiracy mentality may affect compliance with preventive health measures necessary to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and the underlying motivations to comply.
We conducted two cross-sectional studies (Study 1 N = 762, Study 2 N = 229) on a French population, measuring conspiracy mentality, compliance with preventive health measures, and perceived risks related to COVID-19. We also measured motivations to comply with preventive measures in Study 2.
We show that people high in conspiracy mentality are likely to engage in non-normative prevention behaviours (Study 1), but are less willing to comply with extreme preventive behaviours that are government-driven (Study 2). However, we demonstrate that a perceived risk to oneself (risk of death) and a motivation to protect oneself can act as a suppressor: Conspiracy mentality is linked with an increase in the perception of risk to oneself, which, in turn, is associated with normative compliance. We also find that perceived risk of death explains the relationship between conspiracy mentality and non-normative prevention behaviours.
Our studies showcase how people high in conspiracy theorizing may (dis)engage with prevention behaviours, but that perceived risk and motivation to protect oneself could increase these individuals' compliance.
本研究旨在探讨阴谋论心态如何影响人们遵守抗击 COVID-19 大流行所需的预防措施，以及人们遵守的潜在动机。
我们对法国人群进行了两项横断面研究（研究 1：N=762；研究 2：N=229），测量了阴谋论心态、预防措施的遵守情况以及与 COVID-19 相关的感知风险。我们还在研究 2 中测量了遵守预防措施的动机。
我们表明，阴谋论心态较高的人可能会采取非规范的预防行为（研究 1），但不太愿意遵守政府驱动的极端预防行为（研究 2）。然而，我们证明，对自身的感知风险（死亡风险）和保护自身的动机可以起到抑制作用：阴谋论心态与对自身风险的感知增加有关，而这种感知又与规范的遵守有关。我们还发现，对死亡的感知风险解释了阴谋论心态与非规范预防行为之间的关系。
我们的研究展示了阴谋论心态较高的人可能会（不）参与预防行为，但对自身风险的感知和保护自身的动机可能会增加这些人遵守预防措施的可能性。
