# The Impact of Trust in Science on COVID-19 Vaccine Attitudes: Parallel Mediation Through Conspiracy Beliefs and General Vaccine Hesitancy

## TL;DR

This study explores how trust in science affects attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine through belief in conspiracy theories and general vaccine hesitancy.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a parallel mediation model to show how trust in science influences vaccine attitudes via two distinct psychological mechanisms.

## Key findings

- Trust in science indirectly influences vaccine attitudes through reduced conspiracy beliefs and more positive general vaccine attitudes.
- Both indirect pathways are statistically significant, but the effect through general vaccine attitudes is larger.
- The findings suggest two separate psychological routes linking scientific confidence to vaccination acceptance.

## Abstract

This study examines the impact of trust in science on individuals’ attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine, with an application to the parallel mediating roles of belief in conspiracy theories and general vaccine hesitancy.

A survey of 469 adults in Türkiye was conducted online and paper-based. Direct and indirect effects (IEs) were estimated by parallel mediation analysis using PROCESS Macro Model 4 with 5000 bootstrap resamples.

Trust in science was found to influence COVID-19 vaccine attitudes indirectly through 2 distinct psychological mechanisms: reduced belief in conspiracy theories and more positive general vaccine attitudes. Both indirect pathways were statistically significant, confirming their mediating roles. Although the mediation effect through general vaccine attitudes was larger in magnitude, the difference between the 2 IEs was not statistically significant.

These results point out 2 separate psychological routes connecting scientific confidence to vaccination acceptance. General vaccine attitudes could be more profound and lasting than crisis-specific ones. This paper provides theoretical and practical insights for creating long-term public health strategies that foster trust and combat both misinformation and deep-seated vaccine skepticism by using a parallel mediation approach in the sociocultural setting of Türkiye.