COVID-19 AND CONSPIRACIES: A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF CONSPIRACY THEORY TRENDS IN GOOGLE SEARCHES BEFORE AND DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on societies globally, leading to significant social, economic, and cultural transformations. However, it also resulted in a surge of misinformation. This study presents a quantitative analysis of the trends in conspiracy theory-related Google searches before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims to determine if the pandemic had an impact on the level of public interest in preexisting conspiracy theories by analyzing Google Trends data from January 2017 to January 2022. A range of conspiracy theories, encompassing government, health, technology, historical events, and economics, were chosen based on established methodologies found in existing literature. The study utilizes various analytical methods, such as correlation analysis and structural break analysis, employing the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) to examine changes in search behaviors. The results suggest that the COVID-19 Pandemic significantly increased the RSV of conspiracies related to politics, science, and economics while decreasing those pertaining to historical events and health. This study contributes to our understanding of how significant events can influence public search behavior and provides valuable insights into debunking false information during times of crisis.