Factors contributing to COVID-19 is rumour acceptance – results of CEDMO Study

COVID-19 has been associated with a number of rumours. Our research examined the level of agreement with the claim that COVID-19 was a rumour per se, two years after the pandemic, including investigation of socio-economic, psychological as well as political believes and media use characteristics that may help to explain why some people believe in this rumour. A voluntary observational study was conducted among a quasi-representative Czech population (n = 2453). The analysis was performed in r Studio. First, we performed a series of univariate ordinal logistic regression models, second, we performed multivariate models. We found that about 6% of respondents in 2023 believe that COVID-19 is a rumour, and another 6% are not sure. Respondents are more likely to consider COVID-19 a rumour if they are male, in younger age groups up to 54 years and less educated. Respondents who visit disinformation portals at least once a week and those who are very dissatisfied with democracy in terms of their political beliefs are more likely to agree with the statement that COVID-19 is a rumour than other population groups. Compared to other studies, visiting disinformation websites emerged as a risk factor, but so did dissatisfaction with democracy as such.