A survey conducted in the United Kingdom has shown that some 20 percent of the people believe that the coronavirus pandemic is a Jewish creation. One in five Britons believes that the Jews created the pathogen to engineer the collapse of the global economy, as per the survey.
The Jerusalem Post said the survey was published in the journal Psychological Medicine. It added that the survey was titled 'The Oxford Coronavirus Explanations, Attitudes, and Narratives Survey (OCEANS)'. However, no link to the survey was given in the report.
The report adds that as many as 2,500 adults were interviewed for the survey. These people represented a cross-section of the English people in terms of age, gender, region, and income.
A multitude of Conspiracy Theories
The coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 350,000 people worldwide, has spawned a multitude of conspiracy theories. The major ones circle around the purported Chinese efforts to create a superbug that went awry. China has pushed back on the US, saying the American military brought the virus to China. However, an equally strong strand of coronavirus conspiracy theory is that the Jews created the virus as part of their quest for world domination. The latest survey shows that there are surprisingly far too many takers for this theory in the United Kingdom.
According to the survey, some 2.5 percent of the people said they completely agree with the statement that "Jews have created the virus to collapse the economy for financial gain." As many as 80.8 percent did not agree with the statement. The survey says that 5.3 percent said that they "agree a little," 6.8 percent said that they "agree moderately," and 4.6 percent said that they "agree a lot,".
Equal Number Says Muslim Behind Virus
Interestingly, an equal number of people surveyed thought Muslims were behind the coronavirus pandemic. According to the survey, as many as 19.9 percent said they agree to some extent that "Muslims are spreading the virus as an attack on Western values." As many as 80 percent said they did not agree to the statement at all.
Some 25 percent of the respondents also said that "celebrities are being paid to say that they have coronavirus." Some even said that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faked having coronavirus.
"Conspiracy thinking is not isolated to the fringes of society and likely reflects a growing distrust in the government and institutions. Conspiracy beliefs arguably travel further and faster than ever before. Our survey indicates that people who hold such beliefs share them; social media provides a ready-made platform," said Dr Sinéad Lambe, a clinical psychologist who worked on the study, according to JPost.
