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Insight into the accuracy of COVID-19 beliefs predicts behavior during the pandemic

Susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation--believing false statements to be true--negatively relates to compliance with public health measures. Here, we make the prediction that metacognitive insight into the varying accuracy of own beliefs predicts compliance with recommended health behaviors, above and beyond the accuracy of these beliefs. In a national sample of German citizens, we investigate metacognitive sensitivity, the degree to which confidence differentiates correct from incorrect beliefs. Bayesian and frequentist analyses show that citizens with higher metacognitive sensitivity were more likely to adopt recommended public health measures. Importantly, this benefit of metacognitive introspection into own beliefs held controlling for the accuracy of the beliefs. The present research highlights that insight into the varying accuracy of beliefs, rather than only the beliefs themselves, relate to citizens’ behavior during the pandemic