**1. Introduction**

The worldwide pandemic that started two years ago has led, among other things, to a surge in news consumption and an increased demand for up-to-date, accurate (online) content about coronavirus and the social, economic, political, even psychological implications it has triggered globally. However, while COVID-19-related information is relatively easy to spot in both mainstream media and on various social platforms, an impressive amount of that information is, in fact, misleading, conspiracy-driven, or outright false [1,2]. In earlier studies, the parallel "infodemic" accompanying the original epidemic has been compared to the SARS-CoV-2 virus's intra-community transmission [3], giving rise to numberless rumors, misleading facts, and fake news regarding the coronavirus situation

**Citation:** Buturoiu, R.; Udrea, G.; Oprea, D.-A.; Corbu, N. Who Believes in Conspiracy Theories about the COVID-19 Pandemic in Romania? An Analysis of Conspiracy Theories Believers' Profiles. *Societies* **2021**, *11*, 138. https://doi.org/10.3390/ soc11040138

Academic Editors: Eugène Loos and Loredana Ivan

Received: 28 September 2021 Accepted: 9 November 2021 Published: 13 November 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

that have constantly circulated online and that show no sign of halting soon. Among them, conspiracy theories regarding the pandemic in general and vaccination campaigns aimed at containing the virus have become particularly commonplace in the digital ecosystem [4]. Ranging from stories denying the very existence of the virus to narratives claiming that its transmission is associated with the roll-out of 5G or that facemasks can cause hypoxia or hypercapnia [5], toxic narratives have proliferated and continue to be widely shared among internet users around the world and fuel confusion, uncertainty, and concern.

The effects of spreading and/ or believing in such questionable, conspiracy-based information are complex and ye<sup>t</sup> to be established in the long run at both the individual and the societal level. Still, given the current context and building on previous research, we argue that these effects primarily concern an individuals' resistance to accepting protective measures [6] and a rather negative attitude towards vaccination and immunization campaigns [7,8], as well as other far-reaching effects, such as generalized panic, high levels of societal anxiety [9], street protests, or distrust in governments, mainstream politics, and official institutions [10].

In this study, we seek to examine the factors that shape the profile of the believer in conspiracy plots and narratives. As previously shown, in previous studies, the latter have been linked directly to the undermining of public health efforts [1], and, more specifically, to people's reluctance in adopting rules that could successfully contribute to herd immunity [11,12]. Here, we intend to contribute to a growing body of works documenting the factors that may lead people to believe in conspiracy theories and to act based on these beliefs. This is, to our knowledge, one of the first studies of its kind in Romania, investigating the main predictors of Romanian people's tendency to believe in conspiracy narratives related to vaccines and vaccination. One of the premises at the center of this paper is that media play a key role in the way people perceive the COVID-19 crisis and its various implications. Therefore, we developed a survey-based research design in order to assess media consumption (i.e., the frequency of news consumption from websites, SNS platforms and IM apps, the perceived usefulness of social media, and the perceived incidence of fake information about the virus in the media) and their contribution in building the profile of the believer in conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we investigated the role of age, as compared to other socio-demographic factors such as education and religiosity, and the critical thinking disposition of people who tend to embrace and ultimately disseminate such deceitful content.

It is essential to understand which types of people are more likely to believe and further proliferate misleading narratives or conspiracy theories. This helps to provide evidence-based recommendations for stakeholders such as health experts, journalists, and policy makers to raise awareness and take actions to address the dangers associated with potentially harmful information circulating as misleading narratives about COVID-19-related topics, which discourage people from complying with restrictive and protective measures.

#### **2. Conspiracy Theories and Predictors of Conspiracy Beliefs**

Given their nature of precariousness and unpredictability, crises are a fertile ground for conspiracy theories. Such narratives offer a "proposed explanation of events" [13] (p. 2) that is typically based on the categorization of the Other—a secret, all-powerful group, or groups of people, pursuing some malevolent purpose against the common good [14]. Their origins are to be found in people's need to build a narrative that gives them the possibility to cope with the unknown [15]. Conspiracy theories are closely connected with psychological factors, such as powerlessness [16] or anxiety and uncertainty [17]. They might also stem from people's need to restore a threatened sense of security and control [18]. They may have significant consequences at both the individual and the social level, causing real harm—see, for example, the correlation between anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and vaccination intentions [19]. Different factors, such as (lower) socioeconomic status [20,21], partisanship and news media exposure (often closely connected [22–24]), conspiracy thinking and denialism [25], or personal traits [26] might explain people's tendencies to embrace conspiracy beliefs.

During the current COVID-19 health crisis, conspiracy theories are running rampant as part of a larger disinformation process channeled mainly via social media [25,27]. For example, some people believe that the COVID-19 virus is being purposefully manufactured and spread as a bioweapon; others have been persuaded that the virus is targeted against Islamic nations, that the COVID-19 vaccine is designed to implant people with microchips in order to gain control over them, or that the vaccine could cause infertility, restricting the growth of the human population [28–30]. These conspiracy beliefs can pose serious threats to public health, as they are positively correlated with people's reluctance to comply with protective measures taken by authorities [7,31].

One of the most common conspiracy theories, both in the COVID-19-related context and in other health-related crises, concerns vaccines and vaccination. Although vaccination is one of the most effective public health measures [32], vaccine criticism [33] or even an anti-vaccination movement [34] represent an issue that many countries across the globe face well into the 21st century. As emphasized by Jolley and Douglas [19], the anti-vaccine conspiracy movement is built around the argumen<sup>t</sup> that big pharmaceutical companies and governments conceal information about vaccine efficacy in order to pursue their own dishonest goals. Additionally, given the emergence of a postmodern paradigm of healthcare, where the power tends to be transferred from doctors to patients, and the unprecedented development of the online environment, the very legitimacy of science and the concept of expertise are being called into question, opening a discursive space in which anti-vaccine activists can exert their influence [34].

As previously mentioned, different factors might provide explanations for people's tendencies to believe in conspiracy theories and to act based on these beliefs. One of these predictors is individuals' thinking dispositions [35–37]. For example, it has been empirically demonstrated that conspiracy beliefs negatively correlate with analytic thinking, with open-mindedness, with the need for cognition [37] (p. 574), or with critical thinking. In fact, critical thinking, understood as the "reasonable reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do" [38] (p. 46), is paramount in the case of conspiracy theories. These usually rely on ambiguity [39] and on "a series of fallacious arguments" [40] (p. 7); therefore, it is essential to discern truth from falsehood and exaggeration from mere, plausible facts. As Blair (2012) [41] or Lantian et al. (2020) [40] demonstrated, individuals who score highly in their critical thinking abilities are less inclined to believe conspiracy theories. They are more capable of critically examining information they come across and of accurately assessing the reliability and the credibility of sources. In the COVID-19 context, critical thinking is advanced by Grimes (2020) [42] as a possible solution for countering the flood of health disinformation—among which are vaccine and vaccination-related conspiracy theories—that has polluted the media ecosystem. In line with this reasoning, we posit that:

**Hypothesis 1 (H1).** *People with a lower disposition towards critical thinking are more prone to believe in conspiracy theories about vaccines and vaccination.*

Nowadays, digital media platforms have outpaced print and broadcast as sources of news [43]. This dramatic change in people's media diet raises mixed reactions. While some scholars praise the equality in information access, production, and dissemination [44] made possible by the advent of these platforms, others point out that the lack of gatekeepers, of objectivity and balance or the insufficient use of fact-checkers [45] transform them into a fertile ground for the uncontrolled spread of false content [46,47]. Additionally, within their social media networks, individuals tend to consume and disseminate ideas and information with which they already agree, without or barely taking into consideration alternative opinions [48,49]. As many scholars have already pointed out, social media plays an essential role in the dissemination of conspiracy theories [50,51]. This phenomenon is also replicated in case of the current COVID-19 pandemic, where most

of the conspiracy theories were first generated and disseminated on social media [52,53]. There is also strong evidence that supports a correlation between social media use and beliefs in conspiracy theories [23,51,54], and more specifically, between social media use and beliefs in vaccine and vaccination-related conspiracy theories [34]. A large amount of research [27,30,55] has already demonstrated that shows people who use social media as news or information sources are more prone to believe in COVID-19-related conspiracy theories, including vaccine and vaccination-related conspiracy theories. Against this backdrop, we sugges<sup>t</sup> that:

**Hypothesis 2 (H2).** *People who believe that SNS are more useful for keeping them updated with any type of information are more prone to believe in conspiracy theories about vaccines and vaccination.*

As previously mentioned, the outbreak of the current pandemic was associated with a flood of disinformation, mainly spread online. Mitchell and Oliphant (2020) [56] showed that almost half of Americans declared they have been exposed to coronavirus-related misleading information (often referred to as "fake news"); nearly two-thirds reported encountering it on a daily basis, which might be problematic, given that repeated exposure can lead to an increased belief in fake news [57]. Similarly, a survey by Ofcom in the UK found that almost half of the population reported exposure to coronavirus-related fake news [58]. Previous studies have already linked fake news and conspiracy theories [59–61]. As suggested by Faragó et al. (2019) [62], conspiracy mentality, or "a political worldview consisting of general feelings of distrust or paranoia toward governmen<sup>t</sup> services and institutions, feelings of political powerlessness and cynicism, and a general defiance of authority" [63] (p. 194) predicts the higher acceptance of political fake news. Halpern et al. (2020) [61] also showed that a conspiracy mentality, including vaccine-related conspiracy beliefs, is positively correlated with exposure to fake news, while Landrum and Olshansky (2019) [63] empirically demonstrated that conspiracy mentality predicts the rejection of science (thus opening room to beliefs such as the idea that vaccines are unsafe and can cause different health disorders). In line with this reasoning, here, we state that:

**Hypothesis 3 (H3).** *People who perceive a higher incidence of fake news related to COVID-19 vaccination are more prone to believe in conspiracy theories about vaccines and vaccination.*

In times of health crisis, people tend to consume an increasing amount of news and more frequently [64], in order to find out about possible assessments of risks and solutions to the situation. In what specifically concerns the COVID-19 crisis, different studies [30,65,66] provide empirical support for an increased popularity of mainstream media, including television and newspapers, as sources of information. Additionally, these researchers have found a strong correlation between the use of different information sources and COVID-19 beliefs. For example, the accurate perception about the gravity of the virus was higher among individuals that used and trusted official governmen<sup>t</sup> websites; those who relied more on other sources, among which is online media, tended to downplay the importance of the outbreak or to believe false claims about the virus and its treatment [65,67,68]. Furthermore, as different authors have already demonstrated, the online environment was a major source of disinformation in general and of conspiracy theories in particular during the current pandemic [69–71]. Many of these conspiracy narratives have been built around the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination [7,23]. This is not surprising, since the internet is a major source of vaccine and vaccination-related conspiracy theories [34,72–74] that can flourish during outbreaks and normal periods as well. Associated "with mistaken fears about the nature or effects of vaccination" [7] (p. 2), COVID-19-vaccine-related conspiracy beliefs tend to minimize the threat posed by the virus or to advance alternative ways of facing it. What is more important is that they can cause real harm, since they are positively associated with vaccine hesitancy. Against this backdrop, here, we posit that:

**Hypothesis 4 (H4).** *People who consume more COVID-19 related news from online sources (websites, SNS, and IM platforms) are more prone to believe in conspiracy theories about vaccines and vaccination.*

A relatively large body of studies has investigated the relevance of age as a possible predictor for conspiracy beliefs, and particularly for vaccine and vaccination-related conspiracy beliefs, with mixed results. For example, Thornburn and Bogart (2005) [75] or Ross, Essien, and Torres (2006) [76] did not find a significant correlation between age, conspiracy beliefs, and subsequent behavior. Nonetheless, other studies emphasized that age does predict conspiracy beliefs; more precisely, young people are more inclined to embrace such beliefs [77,78]. Recent studies investigating COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs [7,27] provide empirical support for this finding. In fact, younger individuals, who tend to feel politically powerless (Romer and Jamieson, 2020) [7] and tend to develop less resilience to misinformation than older generations (De Coninck et al., 2021) [68], were more prone to believe COVID-19-related conspiracy theories, including vaccine-related conspiracy theories. Additionally, when compared with older generations, young people tend to consume slightly more social media [79] which, as previously shown, is more prone to disseminate conspiracy theories, including vaccine and vaccination-related conspiracy theories. This hypothesis is supported by Allington et al.'s study (2020) [27]. They showed that, among demographic variables, age was most strongly associated with vaccine hesitancy. In line with this reasoning, here, we state that:

**Hypothesis 5 (H5).** *Younger people are more prone to believe in conspiracy theories about vaccines and vaccination.*

Education is consistently reported as an important socio-demographic predictor in the case of conspiracy beliefs [80,81] and of vaccine and vaccination-related conspiracy beliefs in particular [82,83]. In general, the more educated individuals are, the less they tend to embrace conspiracy theories. As van Prooijen (2017) [81] accurately explains, high education leads to cognitive sophistication, to the feeling of control over a (distressing) situation, and to a privileged socio-economic status, which in turn decreases the probability to embrace conspiracy beliefs. Education is also strongly associated with critical thinking, already discussed here, and with skepticism [40,84], which negatively correlate with conspiracy beliefs. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that, given the complexity of the current media landscape, and particularly of health topics, educational background might not be able to protect individuals against conspiracy messages [82]. In what specifically concerns the current pandemic, different studies [7,27] have found a negative correlation between education and COVID-19-conspiracy beliefs, including vaccine and vaccination-related conspiracy beliefs. Furthermore, Arshad et al. (2021) [85] also demonstrated that education is negatively associated with conspiracy theories regarding the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination. Following this line of reasoning, here, we advance hypothesize that:

#### **Hypothesis 6 (H6).** *More educated people are less prone to believe in conspiracy theories about vaccines and vaccination.*

Religion type and religiosity are other factors that might be associated with conspiracy beliefs in general [86–88] and with vaccine-related conspiracy beliefs in particular [71,88]. As shown by Robertson and Dyrendal (2018) [89], higher religiosity can positively correlate with greater conspiracy beliefs, given that religion and conspiracy theories have aspects in common such as esotericism, millennialism, and prophecy. Hart and Graether (2018) [90] also demonstrated that individuals who believe in conspiracy theories have the tendency to be more religious. The association between religiosity, understood as "the depth of faith in religion" [86] (p. 6), and conspiracy beliefs is partly mediated by anti-intellectualism [87]. In fact, individuals who embrace a religious worldview tend to consider that "faith is superior to reason and that scientific inquiry will lead to the invalidation of religious

beliefs" [87] (p. 1050). In the case of vaccines and vaccination, this perspective might have serious consequences, invalidating epidemiologists' and authorities' efforts to eradicate severe diseases. In what specifically concerns the current pandemic, different studies have shown that religiosity correlates with COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs [86] or with vaccination hesitancy [91,92]. Based on this, we sugges<sup>t</sup> that:

**Hypothesis 7 (H7).** *People who exhibit higher levels of religiosity are more prone to believe in conspiracy theories about vaccines and vaccination.*

#### **3. Materials and Methods**

In order to analyze the variables predicting belief in conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines, we conducted a national survey using an online panel ( *N* = 945), representative of the population of Romania that has access to the internet and is aged 18 or higher, using quotas for gender, age, and geographical region. The main characteristics of the sample were the following: the mean age was 43.11 years (*SD* = 13.08); the sample consisted of 50.6% women and 49.4% men; the sample consisted of 47.3% people with low education (people who completed any of the ISCED 0 to ISCED 3 education levels), 13% people with medium education (people who completed the ISCED 4 education level), and 39.7% people with high education (people who completed any of the ISCED 5 to ISCED 8 education levels); people living in urban areas accounted for 81.9% of the sample. The national survey was conducted by Daedalus New Media Research (part of Kantar Romania) and the data were collected during 1–9 April 2021.
