Does religion predict coronavirus conspiracy beliefs? Centrality of religiosity, religious fundamentalism, and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs

Paweł Łowicki; Marta Marchlewska; Zuzanna Molenda; Adam Karakula; Dagmara Szczepańska

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.111413

Does religion predict coronavirus conspiracy beliefs? Centrality of religiosity, religious fundamentalism, and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs

Pers Individ Dif. 2022 Mar:187:111413. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.111413. Epub 2021 Nov 27.

Authors

Paweł Łowicki¹, Marta Marchlewska², Zuzanna Molenda², Adam Karakula², Dagmara Szczepańska^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
² Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
³ Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Maria Grzegorzewska University, Warsaw, Poland.

Abstract

There has been an increasing interest in the relationship between religion and psychosocial functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, emerging recent findings suggest that religiousness may have a Janus-face impact on how people cope with the pandemic, leading to both positive and negative social outcomes. In this project, we examine whether two types of religiousness (i.e., centrality of religiosity and religious fundamentalism) are associated with COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and socially undesirable behavior during the pandemic. We suggest that only the most dogmatic and fundamentalistic type of religiousness could lead to conspiracy beliefs, while centrality of religiosity could be unrelated or even negatively related to this type of thinking. In a series of two studies (N = 361 and N = 394) conducted among Polish Roman Catholics, we demonstrate that religious fundamentalism, unlike centrality of religiosity, is positively related to coronavirus conspiracy beliefs, which, in turn, promote socially maladaptive behavior such as freeriding or non-adherence to safety guidelines.

Keywords: COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs; Centrality of religiosity; Conspiracy beliefs; Freeriding; Non-adherence to safety guidelines; Religious fundamentalism; Religiousness.