ArticlePloS one2022
A darkening spring: How preexisting distrust shaped COVID-19 skepticism.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Drivers of health polarization during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review.Science advances · 2025Pooled it
- Network structure shapes consensus dynamics through individual decisions.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Was health skepticism accounted for in communication about the COVID-19 vaccine? A content analysis of federally-sponsored public service announcements about the vaccine to protect against COVID-19 in the United States.Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
- Concern About COVID-19 Mediates the Relationship Between Life-History Strategy and Stockpiling Food.International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie · 2025Article
- Heuristics Identified in Health Data-Sharing Preferences of Patients With Cancer: Qualitative Focus Group Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Citizens and conspiratorial anti-science beliefs: Opposition versus support in 38 countries across Europe.Public understanding of science (Bristol, England) · 2024Article
- How to distinguish climate sceptics, antivaxxers, and persistent sceptics: Evidence from a multi-country survey of public attitudes.PloS one · 2024Article
- Improving Pathways to Care for Ethnic Minority Communities.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Review
- Impact of Technological Developments on Infectious Disease Epidemiology: Lessons From the First 100 Years of the American Journal of Epidemiology.American journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- Immune Literacy: a Call to Action for a System-Level Change.Journal of microbiology & biology education · 2023Article
- COVID-19 prevention behaviour is differentially motivated by primary psychopathy, grandiose narcissism and vulnerable Dark Triad traits.Personality and individual differences · 2023Article
- Changes in Burnout and Satisfaction With Work-Life Integration in Physicians During the First 2 Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Mayo Clinic proceedings · 2022Article
- Knowledge, Attitude, and Acceptability of COVID-19 Vaccine in Oman: A Cross-sectional Study.Oman medical journal · 2022Article
- Cyberchondria, but not preventive behavior, mediates the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and somatic burden: Evidence from Russia.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Combining Survey and Social Media Data: Respondents' Opinions on COVID-19 Measures and Their Willingness to Provide Their Social Media Account Information.Frontiers in sociology · 2022Article
- Applying Rapid Qualitative Analysis for Health Equity: Lessons Learned Using "EARS" With Latino Communities.International journal of qualitative methodsArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite widespread communication of the health risks associated with the COVID-19 virus, many Americans underestimated its risks and were antagonistic regarding preventative measures. Political partisanship has been linked to diverging attitudes towards the virus, but the cognitive processes underlying this divergence remain unclear. Bayesian models fit to data gathered through two preregistered online surveys, administered before (March 13, 2020, N = 850) and during the first wave (April-May, 2020, N = 1610) of cases in the United States, reveal two preexisting forms of distrust--distrust in Democratic politicians and in medical scientists--that drove initial skepticism about the virus. During the first wave of cases, additional factors came into play, suggesting that skeptical attitudes became more deeply embedded within a complex network of auxiliary beliefs. These findings highlight how mechanisms that enhance cognitive coherence can drive anti-science attitudes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.