Survey Shows People with Low Scientific Reasoning Tend to Believe Conspiracy Theories on COVID-19
March 3, 2021| |
People who understand science are less likely to believe conspiracy theories on COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study conducted in Slovakia and published in Journal of Health Psychology.
A week after the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Slovakia, 783 respondents with ages 18-84 were asked to rate how much they believe various conspiracy theories such as "SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) is a biological weapon created to eliminate the overcrowded human population" and "COVID-19 (coronavirus) is only a fabrication, it is an ordinary flu which pharmaceutical companies rebranded to increase the sales of drugs." They were also asked to take an exam on scientific reasoning which includes a set of true or false statements such as "The researchers want to find out how to increase natality. They ask for statistical information and see that there are more children born in cities that have more hospitals. This finding implies that building new hospitals will increase the birth rate of the population." Questions on coronavirus knowledge, belief in unfounded health-related claims, general analytic thinking, anti-vaccination attitudes, and preventive behavior were also included in the survey.
Results showed that those who believed in COVID-19 conspiracy theories garnered low scores in scientific reasoning and have a low willingness to get vaccinated.
Read more from the Journal of Health Psychology and Psypost.
| |
You might also like:
- COVID-19 Treatment Efforts Using Plant Technologies
- National Survey Says Most Americans Willing to Vaccinate Against COVID-19
- Most Americans Supportive of Scientific Interventions to Stop COVID-19, 72% Willing to Get Vaccinated
Biotech Updates is a weekly newsletter of ISAAA, a not-for-profit organization. It is distributed for free to over 22,000 subscribers worldwide to inform them about the key developments in biosciences, especially in biotechnology. Your support will help us in our mission to feed the world with knowledge. You can help by donating as little as $10.
-
See more articles:
-
News from Around the World
- FAO DG Outlines "Four Betters" as Strategy to Transform Agri-food Systems
- ISAAA Report Summary Now Available in Indonesian, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese
- Science-based Ag-biotech Curriculum Developed for Middle, High School Students in the US
- Wheat's 'Second Genome' Could Help in the Plant's Survival against Environmental Stress
- Study Reveals Plant Clock Key to Producing More Food for the World
- Asian Biotechnology Information Centers Pledge to Advance Biosciences
- Researchers Identify Mechanism that Protects Plant Fertility from Stress
-
Research Highlights
- NtCIPK11 Confers Salt and Drought Tolerance in Arabidopsis
-
Plant
- CRISPR-Cas9 Could Provide the Much-needed Help on Food Security against Climate Change
- UK Scientists Develop Genome-edited Wheat to Reduce Cancer Risk from Bread
- Researchers Invent New Gene Editing Tool
-
Health
- Survey Shows People with Low Scientific Reasoning Tend to Believe Conspiracy Theories on COVID-19
-
Read the latest: - Biotech Updates (July 24, 2024)
- Gene Editing Supplement (July 17, 2024)
- Gene Drive Supplement (February 22, 2023)
-
Subscribe to BU: - Share
- Tweet