I won't comply because it is a hoax: Conspiracy beliefs, lockdown compliance, and the importance of psychological flexibility

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented situations (government lockdowns, quarantines, etc.) and stressors (a seemingly “phantom” virus that can be lurking anywhere) causing uncertainty for the future, uncontrollable and unpredictable situations. It appears that especially during times of un...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Constantinou, M. (Author), Gloster, A.T (Author), Karekla, M. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier Inc. 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
LEADER 02528nam a2200217Ia 4500
001 10.1016-j.jcbs.2021.03.001
008 220427s2021 CNT 000 0 und d
020 |a 22121447 (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a I won't comply because it is a hoax: Conspiracy beliefs, lockdown compliance, and the importance of psychological flexibility 
260 0 |b Elsevier Inc.  |c 2021 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2021.03.001 
520 3 |a The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented situations (government lockdowns, quarantines, etc.) and stressors (a seemingly “phantom” virus that can be lurking anywhere) causing uncertainty for the future, uncontrollable and unpredictable situations. It appears that especially during times of uncertainty and high stress, conspiracy theories flourish and these can affect the way individuals behave, especially in response to governmental recommendations for social isolation and quarantine. Psychological flexibility, we hypothesized, may act as a protective factor in the relation between COVID-19 distress, conspiracy theory beliefs and consequent behaving. In this respect, the aim of this paper was to examine how conspiracy theory beliefs, COVID-19 distress, adherence behavior, and psychological flexibility interact. Participants were 1001 individuals (802 women; Mage = 35.59years, SD = 10.07), who completed an online survey approximately one month after the first governmental measures of self-isolation and quarantine were enforced. Psychological flexibility was found to mediate the relation between conspiracy theory beliefs and compliance behavior. Further, being highly stressed appeared to increase the probability that a person will believe conspiracy theories, while such beliefs influenced whether a person would follow public health recommendations. Psychological flexibility appeared to be a protective factor at low and moderate distress levels. However, at high levels of COVID-19 distress, individuals prone to conspiracy theory beliefs would be less likely to conform to governmental public health recommendations irrespective of their psychological flexibility levels. © 2021 Association for Contextual Behavioral Science 
650 0 4 |a Conspiracy theories 
650 0 4 |a Emotional distress 
650 0 4 |a Psychological flexibility 
650 0 4 |a Public health 
650 0 4 |a Stress 
700 1 |a Constantinou, M.  |e author 
700 1 |a Gloster, A.T.  |e author 
700 1 |a Karekla, M.  |e author 
773 |t Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science