Believing in conspiracy theories in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic: Drivers and public health implications Salim Nefes, Türkay Präg, Patrick Romero Reche, Alejandro Pereira Puga, Manuel COVID-19 Conspiracy theory Max Weber Social factors Spain Vaccine Conspiracy theories jeopardize public health by disseminating misinformation and undermining authoritative health guidelines. This study explores social factors associated with the belief in conspiracy theories in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon the theoretical framework of Max Weber, it posits that beliefs in conspiracy theories are linked to both instrumental rationality considerations, such as trust in health authorities, science, and pharmaceutical companies, as well as value-rationality based factors, such as ideological orientation. The study analyzes recent, nationally representative survey data and is the first to examine the social predictors of belief in conspiracy theories in Spain during the pandemic. The findings highlight that conspiracy theory beliefs are (a) associated with considerably worse vaccination behaviors, (b) not or only very weakly associated with standard demographics such as age, sex, or education, (c) related to instrumental rationality considerations, and (d) only weakly related to value-rationality indicators such as ideological and religious affiliations. In conclusion, the study underscores the significance of public health policies that specifically address conspiracy theory convictions, and to that end, advocates for the application of a Weberian sociological perspective to better understand the diverse rationalities underlying these beliefs, particularly in the absence of discernible demographic predictors. 2023-11-09T09:00:06Z 2023-11-09T09:00:06Z 2023-09-28 info:eu-repo/semantics/article T.S. Nefes et al. Believing in conspiracy theories in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic: Drivers and public health implications. Social Science & Medicine 336 (2023) 116263[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116263] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/85542 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116263 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 4.0 Internacional Elsevier