ArticleL'Encephale2022
[Conspiracy theories and COVID-19: How do conspiracy beliefs arise?]
Article in L'Encephale, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 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
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Scientific Evidence in Public Health Decision-Making: A Systematic Literature Review of the Past 50 Years.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Pooled it
- Acceptability of the social uses of the COVID-19 screening test among women in southern Benin.Journal of public health in Africa · 2025Article
- Navigating the infodemic: strategies and policies for promoting health literacy and effective communication.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has caused an unprecedented global crisis, and a proliferation of conspiracy theories. These conspiratorial beliefs has contributed to weakening the credibility of government public health measures, limiting citizens' access to reliable sources of information, and disrupting the response of health systems to the crisis. Several hypotheses have been proposed in psychology and social science to understand the genesis of these beliefs during a pandemic, including generational, socio-cultural and political characteristics of individuals, and psychological factors such as the desire to preserve one's safety, to maintain a positive self-image, or even to strengthen its social role. However, recent discoveries in cognitive science about belief updating mechanisms offer new insights into the generation of conspiratorial beliefs across time and culture. In this paper, we offer a definition of conspiracy theory and a classification of conspiracy beliefs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We show how the mechanisms of belief updating may explain the genesis of conspiracy theories, and we propose several hypotheses supported by contemporary research in cognitive and social science.
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.