Gemenis Kostas
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
Schweiz Z Polit. 2021 Jun;27(2):229-242. doi: 10.1111/spsr.12467. Epub 2021 Jun 14.
Public opinion on COVID-19 provides new empirical evidence for the debate on the ideological contours of conspiracy theories. I report findings from a web survey in Greece where participants were recruited via paid advertising on Facebook and the study sample was adjusted for age, gender, education, domicile, and region of residence using a nationally representative reference sample. I find that beliefs about conspiracy theories are more correlated than the values associated with established political ideologies, and that conspiracy beliefs and scepticism about the pandemic are best explained by belief in unrelated political and medical conspiracy theories. No other demographic or attitudinal variable has such a strong influence, and the results are robust to different statistical specifications. In comparison, the effect of ideology measured by left-right self-placement is rather negligible and further moderated by trust in government. The results have implications for the strategies aimed at fighting disinformation during public health emergencies.
公众对新冠疫情的看法为关于阴谋论意识形态轮廓的辩论提供了新的实证证据。我报告了在希腊进行的一项网络调查的结果，参与者是通过脸书上的付费广告招募的，并且使用全国代表性参考样本对研究样本在年龄、性别、教育程度、住所和居住地区方面进行了调整。我发现，与既定政治意识形态相关的价值观相比，对阴谋论的信念之间的相关性更强，而且对疫情的阴谋论信念和怀疑态度最好由对不相关政治和医学阴谋论的信仰来解释。没有其他人口统计学或态度变量有如此强烈的影响，并且结果在不同的统计规范下都是稳健的。相比之下，用左右自我定位衡量的意识形态的影响相当微不足道，并且会因对政府的信任而进一步缓和。这些结果对公共卫生紧急情况下打击虚假信息的策略具有启示意义。
