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Beliefs about coronavirus: Relationship with magical thinking and adherence to self-isolation regimen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

S. Kumchenko ,
E. Rasskazova  and
A. Tkhostov
S. Kumchenko*
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
E. Rasskazova
Affiliation:
Clinical Psychology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
A. Tkhostov
Affiliation:
Department Of Neuro- And Pathopsychology, Faculty Of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Pandemic is accompanied by “infodemic” that is related to higher anxiety (Moghanibashi-Mansourieh, 2020; Roy et al., 2020; Huang, Zhao, 2020). We suggest that indefinite and stressful situation of pandemic provoke magical thinking leading to lower adherence with recommendations for self-isolation.

Objectives

The aim was to reveal the structure of beliefs about reasons, manifestation and consequences of coronavirus and their relationship with magical thinking, anxiety and COVID-19-related behaviour.

Methods

In April 2020 (2-3 weeks of self-isolation regimen) 402 adults aged 18-64 years old filled checklist including beliefs about pandemic (based on the model of Leventhal et al., 2003), Magical Ideation Scale Eckblad, Chapman, 1983) as well as scales measuring anxiety and protective behaviour in pandemic and monitoring of information about coronavirus (Tkhostov, Rasskazova, 2020).

Results

Factor analysis revealed three groups of radical beliefs about coronavirus (48.6% of variance, Cronbach’s alphas .62-.75). Belief about the particular meaning of coronavirus was associated with the magical thinking (r=.21), less anxiety about infection (r=-.19) and poorer adherence to self-isolation (r=-.26). Belief in the negligence as a cause of coronavirus was more typical for those with better adherence (r=.18) while catastrophic beliefs about the consequences of pandemic were related to frequent monitoring of the information about the pandemic (r=.24), and anxiety regarding future negative consequences of the pandemic (r=.46).

Conclusions

Dysfunctional beliefs about coronavirus could be a factor of poorer adherence related to magical thinking and could be addressed in psychological interventions. Research is supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 20-04-60072.

Keywords

infodemiccoronavirusmagical thinking
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 64 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 29th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2021 , pp. S281
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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