CONSPIRACY THEORIES & VACCINE HESITANCY
We study how people form beliefs and make health-related decisions during large-scale societal threats, with a focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Using survey and mixed-methods approaches, our research examines how fear, denial, and conspiratorial thinking relate to mental health, trust in institutions, and vaccine attitudes, with the goal of informing more effective public health communication.
PUBLICATIONS
Perez-Gay Juárez, F., Khayyat, L., Ronca, M., & Gold, I. (2024). Viral Belief: The Psychology of COVID Conspiracy Theories. In American Conspiracism (pp. 53–79)
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Perez-Gay Juárez, F., Solomonova, E., Nephtali, E., & Gold, I. (2023). Conspiracies and contagion: Two patterns of COVID-19 related beliefs associated with distinct mental symptomatology. Psychiatry Research Communications, 4(1), 100153.
Krastev, S., Krajden, O., Vang, Z.M., Pérez-Gay Juárez, F., Solomonova, E., et al. (2023). Navigating the uncertainty: A novel taxonomy of vaccine hesitancy in the context of COVID-19. PLOS ONE, 18(12), e0295912.
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Krastev, S., Krajden, O., Vang, Z.M., Pérez-Gay Juárez, F., Solomonova, E., et al. (2023). Institutional trust is a distinct construct related to vaccine hesitancy and refusal. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 2481.
Corsten, C., Vang, Z.M., Gold, I., Goldenberg, M.J., Pérez-Gay Juárez, F., & Weinstock, D. (2023). Understanding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Canada. Vaccine, 41(48), 7274-7280.