Teovanović Predrag, Lukić Petar, Zupan Zorana, Lazić Aleksandra, Ninković Milica, Žeželj Iris
Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation University of Belgrade Belgrade Serbia.
Laboratory for Research of Individual Differences, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade Belgrade Serbia.
Appl Cogn Psychol. 2021 Mar-Apr;35(2):486-496. doi: 10.1002/acp.3770. Epub 2020 Dec 7.
In the coronavirus "infodemic," people are exposed to official recommendations but also to potentially dangerous pseudoscientific advice claimed to protect against COVID-19. We examined whether irrational beliefs predict adherence to COVID-19 guidelines as well as susceptibility to such misinformation. Irrational beliefs were indexed by belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, COVID-19 knowledge overestimation, type I error cognitive biases, and cognitive intuition. Participants ( = 407) reported (1) how often they followed guidelines (e.g., handwashing, physical distancing), (2) how often they engaged in pseudoscientific practices (e.g., consuming garlic, colloidal silver), and (3) their intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Conspiratorial beliefs predicted all three outcomes in line with our expectations. Cognitive intuition and knowledge overestimation predicted lesser adherence to guidelines, while cognitive biases predicted greater adherence, but also greater use of pseudoscientific practices. Our results suggest an important relation between irrational beliefs and health behaviors, with conspiracy theories being the most detrimental.
在新冠病毒“信息疫情”中，人们既会接触到官方建议，也会接触到声称能预防新冠病毒的潜在危险的伪科学建议。我们研究了非理性信念是否能预测对新冠疫情防控指南的遵守情况以及对这类错误信息的易感性。非理性信念通过对新冠病毒阴谋论的相信程度、对新冠病毒知识的高估、I 型错误认知偏差以及认知直觉来衡量。参与者（(n = 407)）报告了：（1）他们遵守指南（如洗手、保持社交距离）的频率；（2）他们进行伪科学行为（如食用大蒜、胶体银）的频率；（3）他们接种新冠疫苗的意愿。如我们所料，阴谋论信念预测了所有这三个结果。认知直觉和知识高估预测了对指南的较低遵守程度，而认知偏差则预测了更高的遵守程度，但同时也预测了更多地使用伪科学行为。我们的研究结果表明非理性信念与健康行为之间存在重要关联，其中阴谋论危害最大。
