TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rudloff, Jan Philipp
A1  - Hutmacher, Fabian
A1  - Appel, Markus
T1  - Post-truth epistemic beliefs rooted in the Dark Factor of Personality are associated with higher COVID-19 vaccination refusal
T2  - Scientific Reports
N2  - A substantial number of people refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19, which prompts the question as to why. We focus on the role of individual worldviews about the nature and generation of knowledge (epistemic beliefs). We propose a model that includes epistemic beliefs, their relationship to the Dark Factor of Personality (D), and their mutual effect on the probability of having been vaccinated against COVID-19. Based on a US nationally representative sample (N = 1268), we show that stronger endorsement of post-truth epistemic beliefs was associated with a lower probability of having been vaccinated against COVID-19. D was also linked to a lower probability of having been vaccinated against COVID-19, which can be explained by post-truth epistemic beliefs. Our results indicate that the more individuals deliberately refrain from adhering to the better argument, the less likely they are vaccinated. More generally, post-truth epistemic beliefs pose a challenge for rational communication.
KW  - diseases
KW  - psychology
Y1  - 2023
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/35761
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-357619
VL  - 13
ER  -