How a ‘conspiracy mindset’ promotes acceptance of vaccine misinformation, and how to counter it

Conspiracies may be defined as “activities conducted in secret that influence the actions of government and other centers of power to advantage those actors but harm the wider public,” and a conspiracy mindset is a tendency to believe that such activities are important drivers of world events.

A new paper from researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) reviews research conducted by the center during the COVID-19 pandemic, showing that the conspiracy mindset was a major factor in resistance to COVID vaccination in the United States, and offers lessons about how best to counter misinformation and overcome such resistance.

The paper “Lessons learned about conspiracy mindset and belief in vaccination misinformation during the COVID pandemic of 2019 in the United States,” by APPC Research Director Dan Romer and APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson, was published in the journal Frontiers in Communication.

Analyzing data from the first through third years of the pandemic, Romer and Jamieson measured the conspiracy mindset of participants in several nationally representative panel surveys. They found that conspiracy mindsets were highly predictive of acceptance of misinformation about the harms of vaccination, including the COVID-19 vaccine, and that these beliefs carried over to lower COVID vaccination rates.

Romer and Jamieson note that differences in mindsets were related to media use, with those who embraced a conspiracy mindset more likely to follow conservative media. Among Black Americans, however, heightened levels of conspiracy mindsets were able to be overcome by the receipt of supportive messages from within their communities.

The authors also take note of research showing that while Republicans were more likely to follow conservative media and accept misinformation, when they encountered messages from members of their own party supporting vaccination they became more willing to accept COVID vaccines.

The authors conclude that it is possible to overcome the resistance to vaccination encouraged by a conspiracy mindset, but not simply by correcting falsehoods. People with a conspiracy mindset tend to discount messages from sources they don’t trust, and many mistrust the health system and mainstream media. Instead, misinformation needs to be challenged by “supportive information from sources trusted within [a person’s] group.”

“Countering mistrust is the first order of business in countering misinformation among some audiences,” the authors conclude, “but encouraging supportive messages from within the distrustful community may be able to overcome the resistance.”

More information: Daniel Romer et al, Lessons learned about conspiracy mindset and belief in vaccination misinformation during the COVID pandemic of 2019 in the United States, Frontiers in Communication (2025). DOI: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1490292

Provided by University of Pennsylvania

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