TY  - JOUR
A1  - Rudloff, Jan Philipp
A1  - Hutmacher, Fabian
A1  - Appel, Markus
T1  - Beliefs about the nature of knowledge shape responses to the pandemic: Epistemic beliefs, the Dark Factor of Personality, and COVID‐19–related conspiracy ideation and behavior
JF  - Journal of Personality
N2  - Objective
Global challenges such as climate change or the COVID‐19 pandemic have drawn public attention to conspiracy theories and citizens' non‐compliance to science‐based behavioral guidelines. We focus on individuals' worldviews about how one can and should construct reality (epistemic beliefs) to explain the endorsement of conspiracy theories and behavior during the COVID‐19 pandemic and propose the Dark Factor of Personality (D) as an antecedent of post‐truth epistemic beliefs.

Method and Results
This model is tested in four pre‐registered studies. In Study 1 (N = 321), we found first evidence for a positive association between D and post‐truth epistemic beliefs (Faith in Intuition for Facts, Need for Evidence, Truth is Political). In Study 2 (N = 453), we tested the model proper by further showing that post‐truth epistemic beliefs predict the endorsement of COVID‐19 conspiracies and disregarding COVID‐19 behavioral guidelines. Study 3 (N = 923) largely replicated these results at a later stage of the pandemic. Finally, in Study 4 (N = 513), we replicated the results in a German sample, corroborating their cross‐cultural validity. Interactions with political orientation were observed.

Conclusion
Our research highlights that epistemic beliefs need to be taken into account when addressing major challenges to humankind.
KW  - conspiracy theories
KW  - COVID‐19
KW  - Dark Factor of Personality
KW  - epistemic beliefs
KW  - post‐truth
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-293793
VL  - 90
IS  - 6
SP  - 937
EP  - 955
ER  -