The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to numerous new conspiracy theories related to the virus. This study aimed to investigate a range of individual predictors of beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories that account for sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, education, economic standard, the importance of religion, and political self-identification), distinctive motivational orientations (social dominance and authoritarianism), relevant social attitudes (sense of political powerlessness and trust in science and scientists), and perceived personal risk (perceived risk for self and family members, the concern of being infected, and the expected influence of pandemic on the economic standard of an individual). Participants were 1,060 adults recruited from the general public of Croatia. The sample was a probabilistic quota sample with gender, age, level of education, size of the dwelling, and region of the country as predetermined quotas. The regression model explained 42.2% of the individual differences in beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Trust in science and scientists and political powerlessness were the strongest predictors, whereas fear of being infected had the weakest contribution in explaining the variance of the criterion. Additionally, results revealed that the relation of conventionalism (as a proxy of authoritarianism) with belief in COVID-19 conspiracies was mediated by trust in science and scientists. The relation between social dominance and belief in conspiracies was also partially mediated by trust in science. The results suggest that (re)building trust in science and lowering the sense of political helplessness might help in fighting potentially harmful false beliefs about the pandemic.

COVID-19 大流行引发了许多与该病毒相关的新阴谋论。本研究旨在调查对 COVID-19 阴谋论信仰的一系列个人预测因素，这些因素考虑了社会人口特征（年龄、性别、教育、经济标准、宗教的重要性和政治自我认同）、独特的动机取向（社会统治和威权主义）、相关的社会态度（政治无力感以及对科学和科学家的信任）以及感知的个人风险（对自己和家人的感知风险、对被感染的担忧以及大流行对经济标准的预期影响）个人的）。参与者是从克罗地亚公众中招募的 1,060 名成年人。样本是概率配额样本，以性别、年龄、教育水平、住宅面积和国家地区作为预定配额。回归模型解释了 42.2% 的 COVID-19 阴谋论信仰个体差异。对科学和科学家的信任以及政治上的无能为力是最强的预测因素，而对被感染的恐惧在解释标准差异方面的贡献最弱。此外，结果显示，传统主义（作为威权主义的代表）与对 COVID-19 阴谋论的信仰之间的关系是通过对科学和科学家的信任来调节的。社会统治地位与阴谋信仰之间的关系也部分受到对科学的信任的调节。结果表明，（重新）建立对科学的信任并降低政治上的无助感可能有助于对抗有关这一流行病的潜在有害错误信念。