COVID-19 conspiracy theories and the psychology of belief

Kevin O’Neill; Lara Shemtob

doi:10.5114/jhi.2022.114785

eISSN: 2450-5722
ISSN: 2450-5927

Journal of Health Inequalities

Current issue Archive Online first About the journal Editorial board Abstracting and indexing Subscription Contact Instructions for authors Publication charge Ethical standards and procedures

Editorial System

Submit your Manuscript

Editorial Policies

Sarajevo Declaration on Integrity and Visibility of Scholarly Publications

Open access

1/2022
vol. 8

Send email

Copy url:

abstract:

Special paper

COVID-19 conspiracy theories and the psychology of belief

Kevin O’Neill

¹

,

Lara Shemtob

²

West London NHS Trust, United Kingdom
Imperial College London, United Kingdom

J Health Inequal 2022; 8 (1): 33–36

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/jhi.2022.114785

Online publish date: 2022/03/22

View full text Get citation

PlumX metrics:

In this article we explore the phenomenon of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and why they have captured the popular imagination over the course of the pandemic. Indeed, far from benign internet curiosities, COVID-19 conspiracy theories have serious detrimental consequences reaching far beyond those who profess them – we will specially examine their effect on COVID-19 vaccination. Yet despite their harm, such beliefs prove appealing and enduring because of the mixture of understanding, safety and belonging that they claim to offer in uncertain times. Furthermore, they have the potential to widen pre-existing health inequalities amongst already disenfranchised groups. Finally, we look at what is being done to counter such misinformation.

keywords:

COVID-19, public health, health inequalities, health psychology, health policy

Journal published under the patronage of:

COVID-19 conspiracy theories and the psychology of belief

Kevin O’Neill 1 , Lara Shemtob 2

COVID-19, public health, health inequalities, health psychology, health policy

Kevin O’Neill

¹

,

Lara Shemtob

²