Line of police officers on Parliament’s forecourt with protestors behind concrete blocks.
Anti-mandate protest at Parliament in early 2022.
Taylor Winter and Paul Jose seated on garden wall at the University with grass and foliage in the background.
Taylor Winter and Paul Jose

Maybe it was your cousin, your niece, or your ex—the one who didn’t get vaccinated because they swallowed some conspiracy theory that the vaccine would make them sterile or believed COVID-19 was a hoax.

If you’re still puzzling about why they got sucked in, PhD candidate Taylor Winter and Professor of Psychology Paul Jose may have some answers.

Just before the vaccine roll-out, they surveyed people on their attitudes to the vaccine, their political views, and their belief in conspiracy theories. About 1,300 New Zealanders were quizzed in joint research with colleagues from the University of Otago and Melbourne’s La Trobe University.

Left/right divide

The results revealed something of a political divide.

“We found politically conservative individuals were more likely to believe conspiracy theories about COVID-19 than people who were politically liberal,” says Taylor.

This tendency was heightened by a distrust in science, which the researchers flagged as a key factor predicting vaccine hesitancy.

“Distrust in science among conservatives served to exacerbate belief in conspiracy theories and individuals’ reluctance to be vaccinated,” he says.

As a person’s level of distrust increased, so too did their likelihood of signing up to conspiracy theories.

“If people with a conservative political view had at least a moderate trust in science, they were no more likely than left-leaning voters to back COVID-19 conspiracies. But conservatives were far more likely to support these theories when they also had a high distrust in science.”

The results mirror those of research in other countries, Paul says.

“Most of the international research on COVID-19 conspiracy theories suggests conservative voters are more likely to subscribe to these theories and less likely to follow public health measures—such as wearing face masks—as a result,” he says.

Age and sex had no significant effect on conspiracy beliefs.

Hidden authoritarian traits

The survey data also revealed new insights into left-wing voters.

“We found individuals who identify as politically left wing temporarily leaned into typically right-wing authoritarian traits as a response to the threat of COVID-19,” Taylor says.

“Left-leaning respondents tended to be of the view that citizens should be willing to obey government constraints on behaviour in order to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

“Traditionally, authoritarianism is seen as a fixed personality trait held only by right-wing individuals. But COVID-19 has allowed us to test new ways of thinking about authoritarianism that consider it a malleable attitude that can change rapidly in the face of societal threats.”

Paul says these findings challenge mainstream thinking in the field of psychology—as well as popular beliefs about the left/right divide.

“We found politically conservative individuals were more likely to believe conspiracy theories about COVID-19 than people who were politically liberal.”
– Taylor Winter
Protestors’ tents and vehicles on the grounds of the Old Government Buildings.
The anti-mandate protests spread to the grounds of the University’s Law school.

Countering conspiracies

High uptake of the vaccine in New Zealand provides evidence that most of us had little time for claims COVID-19 was cooked up by the Government, big pharma, or the media.

But the weeks-long occupation at Parliament in early 2022 by so-called anti-mandate protestors provided a graphic illustration of conspiracy theories at work.

These theories are by no means a modern phenomenon, says Taylor.

He points to research suggesting they have been around throughout human history, emerging at times of rapid change when people are grappling with uncertainty and fear of the unknown. Back in sixteenth-century Europe, for example, it was convenient to blame the local witch if your crop failed or some other calamity befell your village.

While conspiracy theories may not be new, we live in an age where they can spread more rapidly than ever, turning up on social media feeds at speed.

Research by The Disinformation Project, led by Kate Hannah—a PhD candidate at the University’s Centre for Science and Society—describes a vast array of conspiratorial material online linked to the anti-mandate protest at Parliament.

This material doubtless provided fodder to those who thought the mainstream media was part of a COVID-19 hoax. As many as 16 percent of respondents in Taylor and Paul’s research felt the mainstream media was deliberately feeding them bogus information about the virus and the lockdown.

At the extremes, COVID-19 conspiracy theorists contended the virus was either a weapon of mass sterilisation or caused by 5G mobile transmission towers.

Countering this type of activity is not necessarily a quick fix and some research suggests conspiratorial beliefs can be hard to shift, Taylor says.

The best option, he reckons, may be putting efforts into increasing public trust in science to help stymie the influence of conspiracists.

Other articles