The role of personality, conspiracy mentality, REBT irrational beliefs, and adult attachment in COVID-19 related health behaviors
We investigated irrational beliefs defined in rational-emotive cognitive-behavior therapy (REBT), attachment anxiety and avoidance, and conspiracy mentality as mediators of the relationship between HEXACO and Disintegration traits and COVID-19 health behaviors. Structural equation modeling on a sample of 287 participants, showed that Disintegration (D) was related to all mediating variables, highlighting the importance of D in the emergence of irrational beliefs. Conspiracy mentality mediated the effect of D in low adherence to recommended health behaviors - RHB , negative vaccination behavior, and greater use of pseudoscientific practices - PSP . Attachment anxiety mediated the relationship between high D, high Emotionality (E), and low Honesty (H) and lower adherence to RHB. Higher adherence to RHB predicted positive vaccination behavior, whilst there was no relationship between PSP use and vaccination behavior. REBT irrational beliefs and attachment avoidance were not found to be significant mediators of the relationship between personality traits and COVID-19 health behaviors.