Generic conspiracy beliefs predict health conspiracy beliefs and intention to use alternative medicine instead of chemotherapy: three vignette studies
Résumé
Conspiracy beliefs (CBs) imply deleterious effects on intake of particular treatments such as conventional medicine (CM) or alternative medicine (AM). The use of AM is linked with a poorer prognosis in cancer patients. Three pre-registered correlational studies investigated the links between generic, chemotherapy CBs and intention to use CM and AM. In Study 1 (N=276), 2 (N=313) and 3 (N=283) participants from a general population completed a single-item measure of generic CBs, a chemotherapy CBs scale, and were asked to put themselves in the shoes of a patient diagnosed with cancer for whom chemotherapy was prescribed. Then, intentions to use CM or AM were measured. Results from two mediation analyses on the aggregated studies (total N=872) show that generic CBs are linked with lower intention to use CM and higher intention to use AM. These links are fully mediated by chemotherapy CBs (totally standardized indirect effects for CM β= -.28, 95%IC[-.33,-.24]; for AM β= .36, 95%IC[.31;.40]. Results of Study 2 indicated that upward CBs (i.e., toward relatively powerful groups) are a stronger predictor of chemotherapy CBs and intentions to use CM and AM than downward CBs (i.e., toward relatively powerless groups). We discuss the importance of replicating these findings in a cancer patients’ population, developing evidence-based interventions to prevent the effects of CBs among cancer patients, and addressing defiance toward conventional healthcare system.