In light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, fake news has become one of the key obstacles to effective vaccination of the population. This master's thesis focuses on examining the influence of fake news on attitudes towards vaccination in Slovenia at both the macro and micro levels. By highlighting the specificities of Slovenia in comparison with other European countries, we found that Slovenia ranks last among European nations in terms of satisfaction with democracy and is also last regarding the perception that public institutions were sufficiently transparent about vaccines. Slovenia is also among the 10 countries where news is accessed via social networks rather than directly from the news source. At the micro level, it was determined that the Slovenian attitude towards vaccination is heavily shaped by weakened political trust, pronounced political polarization, and dissatisfaction with democracy. Additionally, a low trust in official institutions and media was detected, which increased susceptibility to disinformation. While older citizens, despite their propensity for conspiracy theories, largely supported vaccination, individuals with higher education surprisingly often believed in conspiracy theories. We also observed that skepticism towards the education system may indicate doubt in the scientific community, which warrants further investigation. Economic dissatisfaction, certain personal values, trust in fellow citizens, and satisfaction with the quality of life also influenced the attitude towards vaccination and susceptibility to conspiracy theories in Slovenia. Based on the results, we determined that the intent to vaccinate was more associated with specific factors than belief in conspiracy theories. All these findings suggest that vaccination coverage in Slovenia is the result of numerous intertwined factors that need further exploration.
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