Competing epistemic authorities during an infodemic: How trust in scientists versus populist governments shaped conspiracy beliefs and protective behaviours regarding COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has been characterised not only as a public health crisis but also an ‘infodemic’, with competing sources of epistemic authority shaping what people believed about the virus and how they responded to it. This large-scale cross-national survey conducted in twelve countries (N=7,755) demonstrates that trust in scientists and institutional media predicted perceived scientific knowledge, whilst distrust in scientists and trust in social media predicted conspiracy belief. Crucially, the role of governmental trust depended on political context: In non-populist government countries, trust in government reinforced perceived scientific knowledge, whereas in populist government countries trust in government predicted conspiracy belief. Moreover, mediation analyses showed that in populist government countries this redirected citizens’ behavioural responses, increasing misguided/self-centred behaviours and decoupling safety guideline adherence from scientific knowledge. These findings show that political context shapes both what citizens believe about science and how they act on it.