IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v341y2024ics0277953623008833.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

To trust or not to trust in the thrall of the COVID-19 pandemic: Conspiracy endorsement and the role of adverse childhood experiences, epistemic trust, and personality functioning

Author

Listed:
  • Kampling, Hanna
  • Riedl, David
  • Hettich, Nora
  • Lampe, Astrid
  • Nolte, Tobias
  • Zara, Sandra
  • Ernst, Mareike
  • Brähler, Elmar
  • Sachser, Cedric
  • Fegert, Jörg M.
  • Gingelmaier, Stephan
  • Fonagy, Peter
  • Krakau, Lina
  • Kruse, Johannes

Abstract

Conspiracy endorsement is a public health challenge for the successful containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. While usually considered a societal phenomenon, little is known about the equally important developmental backdrops and personality characteristics like mistrust that render an individual prone to conspiracy endorsement. There is a growing body of evidence implying a detrimental role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – a highly prevalent developmental burden – in the development of epistemic trust and personality functioning. This study aimed to investigate the association between ACEs and conspiracy endorsement in the general population, specifically questioning a mediating role of epistemic trust and personality functioning.

Suggested Citation

  • Kampling, Hanna & Riedl, David & Hettich, Nora & Lampe, Astrid & Nolte, Tobias & Zara, Sandra & Ernst, Mareike & Brähler, Elmar & Sachser, Cedric & Fegert, Jörg M. & Gingelmaier, Stephan & Fonagy, Pet, 2024. "To trust or not to trust in the thrall of the COVID-19 pandemic: Conspiracy endorsement and the role of adverse childhood experiences, epistemic trust, and personality functioning," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 341(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:341:y:2024:i:c:s0277953623008833
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116526
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953623008833
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116526?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ferreira, Simão & Campos, Carlos & Marinho, Beatriz & Rocha, Susana & Fonseca-Pedrero, Eduardo & Barbosa Rocha, Nuno, 2022. "What drives beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories? The role of psychotic-like experiences and confinement-related factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    2. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, 2021. "How conspiracists exploited COVID-19 science," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(11), pages 1464-1465, November.
    3. van Mulukom, Valerie & Pummerer, Lotte J. & Alper, Sinan & Bai, Hui & Čavojová, Vladimíra & Farias, Jessica & Kay, Cameron S. & Lazarevic, Ljiljana B. & Lobato, Emilio J.C. & Marinthe, Gaëlle & Pavela, 2022. "Antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    4. Andrea Danese & Cathy Spatz Widom, 2020. "Objective and subjective experiences of child maltreatment and their relationships with psychopathology," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(8), pages 811-818, August.
    5. Praveen Suthaharan & Erin J. Reed & Pantelis Leptourgos & Joshua G. Kenney & Stefan Uddenberg & Christoph D. Mathys & Leib Litman & Jonathan Robinson & Aaron J. Moss & Jane R. Taylor & Stephanie M. Gr, 2021. "Paranoia and belief updating during the COVID-19 crisis," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(9), pages 1190-1202, September.
    6. Chloe Campbell & Michal Tanzer & Rob Saunders & Thomas Booker & Elizabeth Allison & Elizabeth Li & Claire O’Dowda & Patrick Luyten & Peter Fonagy, 2021. "Development and validation of a self-report measure of epistemic trust," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-21, April.
    7. Federica Maria Magarini & Margherita Pinelli & Arianna Sinisi & Silvia Ferrari & Giovanna Laura De Fazio & Gian Maria Galeazzi, 2021. "Irrational Beliefs about COVID-19: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-21, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xue, Xiang & Ma, Haiyun & Zhao, Yuxiang (Chris) & Zhu, Qinghua & Song, Shijie, 2024. "Mitigating the influence of message features on health misinformation sharing intention in social media: Experimental evidence for accuracy-nudge intervention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fotakis, Emmanouil Alexandros & Simou, Effie, 2023. "Belief in COVID-19 related conspiracy theories around the globe: A systematic review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    2. Stefkovics, Ádám & Krekó, Péter & Koltai, Júlia, 2024. "When reality knocks on the door. The effect of conspiracy beliefs on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and the moderating role of experience with the virus," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    3. Marilena Mousoulidou & Michailina Siakalli & Andri Christodoulou & Marios Argyrides, 2023. "Conspiracy Theories, Trust in Science, and Knowledge during the Third Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Cyprus," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(17), pages 1-15, September.
    4. repec:cup:judgdm:v:17:y:2022:i:4:p:720-744 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Yoo, Nari & Jang, Sou Hyun, 2024. "Does social empathy moderate fear-induced minority blaming during the COVID-19 pandemic?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    6. Coelho, Priscila & Foster, Katrina & Nedri, Meriam & Marques, Mathew D., 2022. "Increased belief in vaccination conspiracy theories predicts increases in vaccination hesitancy and powerlessness: Results from a longitudinal study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    7. Mary Grace Harris & Emma Wood & Florencia K. Anggoro, 2022. "Mental Models of Illness during the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-12, June.
    8. Amelia Blamey & Ilan Noy, 2024. "Mistrust and Missed Shots: Trust and Covid-19 Vaccination Decisions," CESifo Working Paper Series 11134, CESifo.
    9. Galgali, Madhwa S. & Helm, Peter J. & Arndt, Jamie, 2023. "Feeling too isolated to be vaccinated? The contributing role of subjective interpersonal isolation factors towards COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    10. Jonas R. Kunst & Aleksander B. Gundersen & Izabela Krysińska & Jan Piasecki & Tomi Wójtowicz & Rafal Rygula & Sander van der Linden & Mikolaj Morzy, 2024. "Leveraging artificial intelligence to identify the psychological factors associated with conspiracy theory beliefs online," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    11. Fujio Toriumi & Takeshi Sakaki & Tetsuro Kobayashi & Mitsuo Yoshida, 2024. "Anti-vaccine rabbit hole leads to political representation: the case of Twitter in Japan," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 405-423, April.
    12. Milou Leiting & Katharina Beck & David Bürgin & Jörg M. Fegert & Nils Jenkel & Cyril Boonmann & Klaus Schmeck & Alexander Grob & Marc Schmid, 2024. "Adverse Childhood Experiences, Quality of Life and the Mediating Roles of Self-Efficacy and Self-Directedness in Youth Residential Care Leavers," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(6), pages 3479-3499, December.
    13. Nefes, Türkay Salim & Präg, Patrick & Romero-Reche, Alejandro & Pereira-Puga, Manuel, 2023. "Believing in conspiracy theories in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic: Drivers and public health implications," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    14. Kohnert, Dirk, 2023. "QAnon and other conspiracy ideologies’ impact on Sub-Saharan Africa in the age of Global capitalism," MPRA Paper 115917, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Yuan, Hang & Long, Qinyi & Huang, Guanglv & Huang, Liqin & Luo, Siyang, 2022. "Different roles of interpersonal trust and institutional trust in COVID-19 pandemic control," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    16. Kohnert, Dirk, 2023. "L'impact de QAnon et d'autres idéologies du complot sur l'Afrique subsaharienne à l'ère du capitalisme mondial [QAnon and other conspiracy ideologies' impact on Sub-Saharan Africa in the age of Glo," MPRA Paper 115950, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Ferreira, Simão & Campos, Carlos & Marinho, Beatriz & Rocha, Susana & Fonseca-Pedrero, Eduardo & Barbosa Rocha, Nuno, 2022. "What drives beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories? The role of psychotic-like experiences and confinement-related factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    18. Vincent Bouttier & Salomé Leclercq & Renaud Jardri & Sophie Denève, 2024. "A normative approach to radicalization in social networks," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1071-1093, April.
    19. Elisavet Souvatzi & Magdalini Katsikidou & Aikaterini Arvaniti & Spyridon Plakias & Anna Tsiakiri & Maria Samakouri, 2024. "Trust in Healthcare, Medical Mistrust, and Health Outcomes in Times of Health Crisis: A Narrative Review," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-22, December.
    20. Ben Nasr, Imed & Kondrateva, Galina & Khvatova, Tatiana & Ben Arfi, Wissal, 2024. "The role of Contact-Tracing Mobile Apps in pandemic prevention: A multidisciplinary perspective on health beliefs, social, and technological factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    21. Stoler, Justin & Klofstad, Casey A. & Enders, Adam M. & Uscinski, Joseph E., 2022. "Sociopolitical and psychological correlates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the United States during summer 2021," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:341:y:2024:i:c:s0277953623008833. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.