Much appreciation to all fellow researchers who have supported my student research efforts thus far! Numerous anonymous responses have been obtained, which results in documentation of opinions, versus haphazard ranting, within social media platforms. Participation in research allows individuals to become part of history in the making! This is wise, very wise. A fantastic Saturday to all!

Please do not take this as me being upset, I truly want to offer constructive criticism. I feel the issues with the survey are due to the common blinders of personal experience, and so I offer my rather unusual one as a counter.

I took your survey, and there's a glaring omission. There's no where for people to explain when their answers don't line up with their beliefs, or why. I went to grad school for public health, and failed out, primarily due to the expected course load of 15 hours a semester conflicting with reason or sanity, and an advisor who literally told me, "you're not allowed to tell me about your disability".

I believe in vaccines and medicine, but I haven't had health insurance for 3 years.

Marshmallow root is fabulous for the stomach ulcers I got from NSAID overuse from being a steelworker with fibromyalgia (after the ulcers I've given up on that avenue). Construction was great for Aspergers+poverty (AKA poor social connections), they didn't care if I was weird because I did the job, and safely. But it's no longer a viable option, and I keep track of my work history with a spreadsheet. It's usually about three months before I run out of scripts or the mask slips, and neurotypicals have this thing about punishing non-conformers in dramatic fashion when they don't respond to non-verbal signals to stop doing something. In 'Murica, health insurance is tied to employment, and you aren't eligible for at least the first 90 days. So now my only hope for health insurance is getting on Disability.

I am an early-stage disability advocate with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, so I'm extremely familiar with the vaccine debate. I like the phrasing of the first question, as it dodges the issue of people lying about why they distrust vaccines. I found the phrasing of the second one (about whether public schools force vaccines?) confusing and difficult to answer. I believe public schools should and do strongly encourage and sometimes mandate vaccination, but I do not believe it is a "conspiracy", I believe it is sane and critically important public health policy.

Finally, and most importantly, your questions on conspiracy theory participation in general, while they grabbed some of the big ones, missed the ones my boyfriend's crazy dad signs on to, including the David Adair nonsense and general paranoid anarchist theories and arguments. I also went to a "hipster" church for a while in Fort Worth, with an otherwise intelligent and well-educated congregation, who had completely bought in to the essential oils racket. Tea Tree Oil was great for my combination sunburn/allergy blisters as they healed, but these people thought you could disinfect and clean a house with Frankincense and clear a kid's cold with Eucalyptus alone. I didn't ask about the kids' vaccine status because if they told me the truth I probably would have gotten kicked out of that church a hell of a lot sooner. (They used one of the other autistic homeless people as a prop, and the pastor talked about homeless people in general like vermin. Naturally we got into it.)

While it will definitely turn your stomach, I recommend a deep-dive into the crazier parts of YouTube and Reddit. It will inform questions you didn't even realize were possible for you to have.

Hello, Alexandria. First of all, I appreciate the feedback on the survey. You're the first to respond with such, even though open-ended questions would have probably accomplished this. The portion you, as a participant, were privy to is quite small in relation to the overall subject matter inquiry, as you are surely aware.

Appreciate that the whys of such beliefs were not a variable under measure, for rarely does knowledge of the whys of suffering alleviate symptoms. Instead, what behavior(s) emerge in response to current events was the study's aim, and is much more predictive of emotional resolve, as well as is one's evaluation of personal social support. Additionally, future readers unfamiliar with statistics and thesis methodology will certainly benefit from its very thorough literature review; to submit anything less for such controversial topics would be equivalent to academic ruin. Don't you agree?

It was unnecessary to include all of the numerous 'theories' in the study design, for the thesis comprised existential issues rather than non-existential ones that exist for trivial public debates and/or entertainment. Finally, to probe the rationale for why participants believe this way or that for each particular issue may have resulted in little to no participation (there were 61 questions). The variable that wasn't included that I see as one of greater importance than the whys of beliefs would have been a direct question regarding whether fear of taking the survey was present and, if so, to what degree.

I hope this helps to answer your questions, Alexandria. Again, I sincerely appreciate the feedback. Please do continue to visit the website for study finding updates here: https://psychsocsis.wixsite.com/psychsocsis

Continue to engage. That's how we learn from one another!

Kind regards,

Lori George

Alexandria, would you be willing to allow me to share your participation experience, as posted here? I would never do so without your permission.

If you agree, simply respond with a 'yes'. Only your first name would be featured, if allowed. Also, your membership here would not be mentioned.

Until then ~ Lori