Those believing in Covid conspiracy more likely to be infected: Study

The Covid pandemic not only changed our lifestyle, it also made a face a new era of misinformation through social media. In the initial days of the pandemic, there was confusion over many aspects of the disease and before social media platforms and governments took steps to provide channels disseminating accurate information, there were claims galore.

Then came the vaccines, but with them also came unscientific claims by people including prominent world leaders. The anti-vaxxers still oppose vaccination against Covid.

A new study has shown that those believing in Covid conspiracies have a greater chance of getting infected with the deadly virus.

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"Even if a conspiracy theory is extremely implausible according to logic or scientific evidence, if it seems real to a perceiver, it has a genuine impact on attitudes, emotions, and behavior," say researchers in a paper published in journal Psychological medicine.

Social psychologist Jan-Willem van Prooijen from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands is first author of the study.

For the research, van Prooijen and fellow researchers surveyed 5,745 participants.

These participants were asked early in the pandemic (April 2020), about whether they believe in conspiracy theories like the COVID-19 virus was made by the scientists as a bioweapon and other similar claims.

The same group of participants was asked whether they had tested themselves for the virus and whether the test was positive.

It was found that those who believed in conspiracy theories, were less likely to get themselves tested. But even among those who got tested, those who believed in conspiracy theories were more likely to have been found positive for the infection. The increased likelihood was found to have been due to such participant not having been on guard as compared to those who did not believe in conspiracy theories.