• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, October 3, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

COVID-19 conspiracy theories could be a “gateway” to belief in more conspiracies

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
October 26, 2022
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Down the rabbit hole: Believing a COVID-19 conspiracy theory promotes further conspiratorial thinking
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

In a new analysis, people who more strongly believed in COVID-19 conspiracy theories were more likely to subsequently develop an increased tendency to believe in conspiracy theories in general. Javier Granados Samayoa of The Ohio State University, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on October 26, 2022.

Down the rabbit hole: Believing a COVID-19 conspiracy theory promotes further conspiratorial thinking

Credit: Benoit Beaumatin, Unsplash, CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

In a new analysis, people who more strongly believed in COVID-19 conspiracy theories were more likely to subsequently develop an increased tendency to believe in conspiracy theories in general. Javier Granados Samayoa of The Ohio State University, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on October 26, 2022.

A growing body of research seeks to better understand belief in conspiracy theories. However, few studies have explored factors that might trigger changes in people’s tendency to believe in conspiracy theories over time.

To shed new light, Granados Samayoa and colleagues conducted two survey studies. For the first, they analyzed data from 107 U.S.-based participants recruited via the online platform Mechanical Turk. For the second, they analyzed data from 1,037 U.K. residents recruited by the COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium.

All participants answered questions about their belief in conspiracy theories about the origin and reported severity of COVID-19. They also completed standard surveys that measured their general tendency toward conspiracy theory beliefs, first at the beginning of each study and again after several months. At that point, U.S. participants were also asked about their belief in the conspiracy theory that widespread voter fraud occurred in the 2020 American Presidential election.

Statistical analysis of data from each study showed that participants who more strongly believed in COVID-19 conspiracy theories initially were more likely to subsequently experience an increase in their general tendency to believe in conspiracy theories.

In line with that finding, U.S. participants who showed stronger belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories subsequently showed greater belief in the 2020 election fraud theory—even after statistically accounting for political orientation and initial tendency to believe in conspiracy theories.

These findings suggest that belief in one specific conspiracy theory could be a gateway to a greater general tendency to believe in other theories. Future research could explore the mechanisms by which this might occur.

The authors also note that their findings highlight the importance of reducing belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, as prior research suggests that such theories—and conspiracy theories in general—can lead to harm to believers and their communities.

The authors add: “Believing a COVID-19 conspiracy theory promotes further conspiratorial thinking.”

#####

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0275502

Citation: Granados Samayoa JA, Moore CA, Ruisch BC, Boggs ST, Ladanyi JT, Fazio RH (2022) A gateway conspiracy? Belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories prospectively predicts greater conspiracist ideation. PLoS ONE 17(10): e0275502. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275502

Author Countries: USA, UK

Funding: This work was supported by a RAPID grant from the National Science Foundation under Award ID BCS-2031097 (RHF). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.



Journal

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0275502

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A gateway conspiracy? Belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories prospectively predicts greater conspiracist ideation

Article Publication Date

26-Oct-2022

COI Statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

AI Advances Enhance Sustainable Recycling of Livestock Waste

AI Advances Enhance Sustainable Recycling of Livestock Waste

October 3, 2025
Crafting Yogurt Using Ants: A Scientific Innovation

Crafting Yogurt Using Ants: A Scientific Innovation

October 3, 2025

Pd-Catalyzed Synthesis of E/Z Trisubstituted Cycloalkenes

October 3, 2025

Hanbat National University Researchers Develop Innovative Method to Enhance Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Efficiency

October 3, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    93 shares
    Share 37 Tweet 23
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    88 shares
    Share 35 Tweet 22
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    75 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • New Insights Suggest ALS May Be an Autoimmune Disease

    67 shares
    Share 27 Tweet 17

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Iron Deficiency’s Effects on Colorectal Cancer Treatment Outcomes

Revolutionizing Language Models with Analog In-Memory Computing

Scientists Analyze Chikungunya Outbreak Patterns to Enhance Prediction and Advance Vaccine Development

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 62 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.