20.500.12556/DKUM-97492 Are individuals with persistently high conspiracy mentality also persistently vaccine-hesitant? Findings from a three-wave panel study Conspiracy mentality and vaccine hesitancy are frequently linked, yet most evidence is cross-sectional and cannot separate stable between-person differences from within-person change. Thus, it remains unclear whether conspiracy mentality drives vaccine hesitancy or vice versa. In addition, trust in science has been proposed as a key pathway connecting the two. To tackle these questions, we carried out a three-wave panel of adults (N = 574, Mean age = 52.80, SD = 15.88; 47.4 % men), who were followed over four months. Conspiracy mentality, trust in science, and vaccine hesitancy were measured at each wave. Longitudinal measurement invariance was evaluated prior to modeling. In the cross-lagged panel model, a small cross-lag emerged from conspiracy mentality at Wave 2 to vaccine hesitancy at Wave 3; other cross-lags were non-significant. In the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model, all within-person cross-lags were non-significant, while the random-intercept correlation between the two constructs was strong, indicating substantial trait-level overlap. A three-wave, timelagged mediation model showed a significant indirect effect from conspiracy mentality to vaccine hesitancy via lower trust in science. The findings suggest that conspiracy mentality and vaccine hesitancy co-exist as stable, correlated dispositions rather than displaying robust short-term within-person effects. At the population level, lower trust in science appears to be a key pathway linking conspiracy mentality to higher vaccine hesitancy. Interventions should therefore emphasize building trust in science conspiracy mentality vaccine hesitancy trust inscience RI-CLPM oklevanje pred cepljenjem zaupanje v znanost RI-CLPM true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Znanstveno delo 2026-03-13 03:13:18 2026-03-31 10:38:20 2026-04-01 03:10:49 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 str. 1-9 [article no.] ǂ118770 Vol. 388 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 2025-11-08 2025-11-14 159.98:316.4:614.47 256941827 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118770 1873-5347 RAZ_Lamot_Monika_2025.pdf RAZ_Lamot_Monika_2025.pdf 1 D8B914E1DC4C30C8BE2E343965910371 48c2f68c5ae816bc5f255e3e243ebdd8484da5bffcada3525b7113f526dc0096 eef91f0b-2cdc-11f1-b3ef-00155d0001a1 https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=204922 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625011013?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=9db2d8d78b36c2c3 1 34ae254b-1e82-11f1-80ac-00155d580e1a https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=204485 Filozofska fakulteta 0 0 0