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Belief in Conspiracy Theories About covid-19 Amongst Venezuelan Students: A Pilot Study
Creencias en Teorías de la Conspiración acerca de la covid-19 entre los Estudiantes Venezolanos: Un Estudio Piloto
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15446/rcp.v30n1.87357Keywords:
Covid 19, Venezuela, conspiracy theories, ethnicity, educational level (en)COVID-19, psicología social, teorías de conspiración, Venezuela. (es)
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Although researchers have not satisfactorily tracked the origins of COVID-19, there are no indications that this virus has been engineered by human beings. Yet, conspiracy theories blaming either the United States or China, are increasingly popular. For a greater research project to be developed in the future, a pilot study was done, where 165 Venezuelan students were asked in a survey to rate their agreement with conspiracy theories about COVID-19. Although the majority of subjects were skeptical of these claims, the percentage of acceptance of COVID-19 conspiracy theories was still fairly high, if compared to other medical conspiracy theories. Educational level was not a significant predictive factor in acceptance of these conspiracy theories. Acceptance of other conspiracy theories has a significant relation, but only if they cohere with ideological positioning in the Venezuelan context. Likewise, ethnicity also correlated with belief in covid-19 conspiracy theories, but again, mediated by political alignments in the Venezuelan context.
How to cite this article: Andrade, G. (2021). Belief in conspiracy theories about covid-19 amongst Venezuelan students: A pilot study. Revista Colombiana de Psicología, 30(1), 79-88. https://doi.org/10.15446/rcp.v30n1.87357
A pesar de que los investigadores no han ubicado satisfactoriamente los orígenes de la covid-19, no hay indicaciones de que el virus haya sido diseñado por seres humanos. No obstante, cada vez son más populares las teorías de conspiración que culpan a EE. UU. o China. Para un proyecto de investigación de mayor envergadura que será desarrollado en el futuro, se hizo un estudio piloto, en el que a 165 estudiantes venezolanos se les pidió en una encuesta que evaluaran su nivel de acuerdo con algunas teorías de conspiración respecto a la covid-19. A pesar de que la mayoría se mantuvo escéptica respecto a estos alegatos, el porcentaje de aceptación de teorías de conspiración sobre covid-19 es alto, si se compara con otras teorías de conspiración relacionadas con la medicina. La educación no fue un factor predictivo significativo a favor de la aceptación de estas teorías de conspiración. La aceptación de otras teorías de conspiración tuvo una relación significativa, pero solo si mantienen coherencia con posturas ideológicas en el contexto venezolano. Del mismo modo, la etnicidad también tuvo una correlación con la creencia en las teorías de conspiración sobre la covid-19, pero una vez más esto estuvo mediado por alineaciones políticas en el contexto venezolano.
Cómo citar este artículo: Andrade, G. (2021). Creencias en Teorías de la Conspiración acerca de la covid-19 entre los Estudiantes Venezolanos: Un Estudio Piloto. Revista Colombiana de Psicología, 30(1), 79-88. https://doi.org/10.15446/rcp.v30n1.87357
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