The Impact of Trust in Science on COVID-19 Vaccine Attitudes: Parallel Mediation Through Conspiracy Beliefs and General Vaccine Hesitancy

Background: This study examines the impact of trust in science on individuals’ attitudes toward the COVID 19 vaccine, with an application to the parallel mediating roles of belief in conspiracy theories and general vaccine hesitancy.

Methods: A survey of 469 adults in Türkiye was conducted online and paper-based. Direct and indirect effects (IEs) were estimated by parallel mediation analysis using PROCESS Macro Model 4 with 5000 boot strap resamples.

Results: Trust in science was found to influence COVID-19 vaccine attitudes indirectly through 2 distinct psychological mechanisms: reduced belief in conspiracy theories and more positive general vaccine attitudes. Both indirect pathways were statistically significant, confirming their mediating roles. Although the mediation effect through general vaccine attitudes was larger in magnitude, the difference between the 2 IEs was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: These results point out 2 separate psychological routes connecting scientific confidence to vac cination acceptance. General vaccine attitudes could be more profound and lasting than crisis-specific ones. This paper provides theoretical and practical insights for creating long-term public health strategies that fos ter trust and combat both misinformation and deep-seated vaccine skepticism by using a parallel mediation approach in the sociocultural setting of Türkiye.

Cite this article as: Kara S, Hatipoğlu SS, Arslanoglu NZ, Erdogan Z. The impact of trust in science on COVID-19 vaccine attitudes: parallel mediation through conspiracy beliefs and general vaccine hesitancy. Eurasian J Med. 2025, 57(4), 1024, doi:10.5152/eurasianjmed.2025.251024.