Gender Differences in COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory Beliefs

By Erin C. Cassese, Christina E. Farhart, Joanne M. Miller. Politics & Gender, 2020

95 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract In this article, we evaluate gender differences in COVID-19 conspiracy theory beliefs. We find that women are significantly less likely than men to endorse COVID-19 conspiracy theories and that this gender difference cuts across party lines. Our analysis suggests that this gender gap is partially explained by two dispositional factors: learned helplessness and conspiratorial thinking. Our findings qualify past work on the antecedents of conspiracy theory beliefs, which does not uncover robust and significant gender differences. The results highlight the need for work in this area to better theorize about the significance of gender.

Subfields: Artificial Intelligence, Health, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9e5e72d11a6eca3b206a9d9ea4e68a2e8ab7a587

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Artificial Intelligence

1. A. Enders
2. J. Uscinski
3. Casey A. Klofstad

In Sociology and Political Science

1. A. Enders
2. J. Uscinski
3. Casey A. Klofstad
4. Joanne M. Miller

Citations in the corpus

• The different forms of COVID-19 misinformation and their consequences (2020, background): “…hints that there may be a structure to these dubious ideas, as they seem to vary in their content (Brennen et al., 2020), causal antecedents (Cassese et al., 2020; Uscinski et al., 2020), popularity (Miller, 2020), and behavioral and attitudinal consequences (Imhoff & Lamberty, 2020; Jolley…”