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This explored via cross-sectional survey of 210 participants the connection between the Dark Triad (DT; psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) in vaccine hesitancy.

Not a summary since the paper is open access.

Specifically they explored the following hypotheses:

1. The DT is directly and positively associated to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
2. The DT is positively related to conspiracy beliefs
3. Conspiracy beliefs are related to COVID-19 risk perception
4. Risk perception is negatively associated to hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccine
5. Conspiracy beliefs and COVID-19 risk perception sequentially mediate the interplay between the DT and hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccine

They found that “conspiracy beliefs and risk perception fully mediated the association between the Dark Triad and vaccine hesitancy”.

While hypothesis 1 was rejected (that is, DT wasn’t found to be directly and positively associated to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy), other factors were found to mediate the relationships. Namely, DT was positively associated to conspiracy beliefs – extending the view that malevolent and aversive personality traits foster inclination towards conspiracy beliefs.

For hypothesis 3, conspiracy beliefs were negatively related to COVID-19 risk perception, supporting the view that “generally misleading beliefs lead people to less compliance with infection-reducing measures”.

For hypothesis 4, COVID-19 risk perception was negatively related to hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccine, which they say “supporting that low perceptions about the risk modulate people’s dispositions toward unhealthy behaviours

For hypothesis 5, findings suggested that conspiracy beliefs and COVID-19 risk perception “sequentially mediated the association between DT and hesitancy toward the COVID-19 vaccine”.

Link in comments.

Study link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-023-04609-x

Link to the LinkedIn article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dark-triad-covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-role-conspiracy-ben-hutchinson