PMC:7796329 / 45224-52594 JSONTXT

{"target":"https://pubannotation.org/docs/sourcedb/PMC/sourceid/7796329","sourcedb":"PMC","sourceid":"7796329","source_url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/7796329","text":"4.1. Descriptive Analysis\nA simple frequency analysis of the items measuring conspiracy theories is shown in Figure 1. The statement “Politicians do not honestly reveal their true intentions to the public regarding their decisions on coronavirus disease (COVID-19)” has the most support. This result suggests that political distrust plays an important role in the spread of conspiracy theories because politicians are included in that measure. The second item with a high agreement rate is “there is a secret organization that greatly influences political decisions.” This result also indicates the influence of politics in the spread of conspiracy theories because this item concerns politics as well. Next, 18.3% and 17.9% of respondents support “the government is hiding something from the public,” and “the government is always monitoring the public.” Both statements are related to the government. However, 41.0% and 42.1% of respondents disagree with these statements, which implies that most people do not believe government-related conspiracy theories. Additionally, 12.8% of respondents agree with “certain powerful nations deliberately created the coronavirus (COVID-19) to dominate the world,” which suggests the existence of conspiracies at the international level. However, 52.2% of respondents disagree with this statement. In addition, only 8.0% agree and 63.5% disagree with the statement “coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was deliberately created by pharmaceutical companies to make money.”\nThe simple frequency analysis shows, first, that although a fairly large number of respondents disagree with conspiracy theories, some people do believe them. Second, the degree of belief in a conspiracy theory depends on the main subject of the theory. For example, respondents are most likely to believe conspiracy theories related to politicians and least likely to believe conspiracy theories related to doctors. Third, a significant proportion of respondents expresses neutral attitudes, that is, “neither agree nor disagree.” The highest proportion of neutral responses is 40.7%, and the lowest is 28.6%. The findings implies that many people may believe in conspiracy theories, even if they are explicitly expressed.\nDifferences in beliefs in conspiracy theories are analyzed across different groups as shows in Figure 2. Excluding the categorical variables, we divide the respondents into two or more groups based on the average values of items measured on a five-point scale. Generally, the higher group includes respondents with scores above the average value, whereas the lower group includes respondents with scores below the average value.\nFirst, in terms of political factors, the group with high authoritarianism scores has stronger beliefs in conspiracy theories than the group with low authoritarianism scores, and this difference is statistically significant (F-value = 4.533, p-value = 0.033). Ideologically, conservatives have stronger beliefs in conspiracy theories than progressives do, which supports the results of Hart and Graether [29]; this difference is also statistically significant (F-value = 14.635, p-value = 0.000). The degree of belief in conspiracy theories varies depending on whether the respondent supports Moon’s government. Beliefs in conspiracy theories are stronger among the group that does not support Moon’s current government (F-value = 150.362, p-value = 0.000). These results confirm those of Uscinski and Parent [20]. Additionally, supporters of the current ruling Democratic Party do not tend to believe conspiracy theories (F-value = 17.904, p-value = 0.000). The group with a higher degree of religiosity indicates stronger beliefs in conspiracy theories than the lower group does (F-value = 3.511, p-value = 0.061). Buddhists tend to have the strongest beliefs in conspiracy theories, followed by Christians, non-religious people, and Catholics. Buddhists may have stronger beliefs in conspiracies because the majority of them are conservative elderly. However, the differences between these groups are not statistically significant (F-value = 1.086, p = 0.354).\nAmong the trust variables, individuals with lower trust in the government exhibit stronger beliefs in conspiracy theories than those with higher trust (F-value = 124.413, p-value = 0.000). However, trust in doctors is not significantly associated with beliefs in conspiracy theories (F-value = 2.207, p-value = 0.138). The group with higher trust in SNS has stronger beliefs in conspiracy theories than the group with low trust (F-value = 15.019, p-value = 0.000). Higher trust in the general public is significantly associated with weaker beliefs in conspiracy theories (F-value = 31.972, p-value = 0.000). Among the four trust groups, the classification based on trust in the government has the largest difference between the low and high groups. The impact of trust in the government therefore seems to be very large.\nWhen the groups are defined according to psychological variables, all of the differences are statistically significant. First, the group with high risk perception has a higher level of trust in conspiracy theories than the group with low risk perception (F-value = 92.182, p-value = 0.000). The groups with higher anxiety (F-value = 92.182, p-value = 0.000) and negative emotions (F-value = 61.314, p-value = 0.000) also have stronger beliefs in conspiracy theories than the corresponding lower groups. The groups with lower perceived control (F-value = 52.502, p-value = 0.000) and analytic thinking (F-value = 28.828, p-value = 0.000) have stronger beliefs in conspiracy theories than the corresponding higher groups. Those who exhibit more external blame attribution by assigning responsibility for problems to others, express stronger beliefs in conspiracy theories (F-value = 9.49, p-value = 0.002).\nAmong the structural factors, lower education levels are associated with stronger beliefs in conspiracy theories, but the difference is not statistically significant (F-value = 0.922, p-value = 0.337). Beliefs in conspiracy theories are high among households with incomes below 300 million won and are relatively lower in the two groups with incomes of 300 million won or more (F-value = 3.368, p-value = 0.035). The more knowledgeable the respondents are and the better their quality of information is, the lower their beliefs in conspiracy theories (knowledge, F-value = 7.905, p-value = 0.005; quality of information; F-value = 211.000, p-value = 0.000). In particular, the wide gap in groups with the high and low information suggests that the quality of information is very important. Notably, differences in the amount of information are not associated with any difference in conspiracy beliefs (F-value = 0.916, p-value = 0.339). This result suggests that the quality of information is more important than the quantity of information. Health status has no significant effect (F-value = 0.027, p-value = 0.870), whereas the change in health status (worse) after COVID-19 does have a significant effect (F-value = 127.523, p-value = 0.000). These results show that health changes according to variations in context are more important than everyday health status. Finally, neither gender nor age has a statistically significant impact (gender, F-value = 0.422, p-value = 0.516; age, F-value = 0.695, p-value = 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