Coronavirus conspiracy theorists: What new research says about people who ignore rules

Significant events such as the death of Princess Diana and the September 11 terrorist attacks carry their share of conspiracy theories, and the coronavirus pandemic is no different.

As soon as the virus gained a foothold in America, people started saying the disease was intentionally created in and leaked from a Chinese laboratory, as well as a score of other ideas that have yet to be proved.

Now, new research says people who believe the world runs on conspiracies are more likely to go against preventative measures such as social distancing only if the government tells them to, simply because the behaviors have become the norm.

But in another twist, the researchers found people with a conspiracy mentality also feared more for their health than those without it, meaning the two feelings might cancel each other out, leading them to follow preventative measures in the long run.

The study was published June 25 in the British Journal of Health Psychology.

“We could see that many people were reluctant to follow preventive behaviors, precisely because it was seen as serving the interests of certain industrial or political groups. In order to fight this pandemic, the involvement of everyone in complying with prevention measures is essential,” study author Gaelle Marinthe, of the University of Rennes 2 in France,” told PsyPost. “We recommend not mentioning the fact that these measures are driven by the government. Highlighting individual risk can also help these individuals to adopt preventive behaviors.”

The researchers conducted two online surveys of a total of 991 French citizens: one on March 9 and another between March 18 and March 23, “during the first week of total confinement in France,” implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19, the study said.

The first survey showed that people who strongly believe in conspiracies followed coronavirus safety guidelines such as avoiding public spaces — a time when the government had not enforced recommendations or rules.

Contrarily, the second survey found that once the French government made preventive measures official, these people were more likely to refuse following them.

“People who subscribe to conspiracy theorizing are more likely to engage in non‐normative behaviours, because such behaviours are often supported by the low‐power underdog rather than a high power entity, such as the government,” the researchers said in the study.

The coronavirus pandemic offers an ideal platform for conspiracies to spiral out of control because such grand ideas like those that claim the CIA developed the virus as a bio-weapon or that it was created to make vaccine profits stem from “threatening moments of crisis that breed uncertainty,” according to the researchers.

But the defiant attitude does not apply to everyone, Marinthe told PsyPost, and communication between sources of authority and the public are necessary to protect people during a pandemic.

“Communication around such an issue is therefore multifaceted, and must take into account the different characteristics of individuals in order to increase its effectiveness,” Marinthe told the outlet.

The researchers note their study in no way claims a proven connection between conspiracy mentality, perception of risks and preventative behaviors based on their surveys.

The team also said the surveys were taken at a time when the health threats in France were high, meaning the same correlation may not be found in other populations in countries experiencing differing levels of coronavirus spread.