Awake together: Sociopsychological processes of engagement in conspiracist communities

Wagner‐Egger, Pascal; Bangerter, Adrian; Delouvée, Sylvain; Diéguez, Sebastian

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101417

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…In this regard, research investigating the individual trajectories of conspiracy believers offer some insights (Franks et al, 2017; see also Wagner-Egger et al, 2022). These works describe the development of conspiracy mentality as a journey in which individuals progressively drift apart from a consensually shared understanding of society, to endorse a conspiracist worldview (Franks et al, 2017).…”

Section: The Antecedents Of Conspiracy Mentalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing the Causation Between Conspiracy Mentality and Conspiracy Beliefs: Potential Pitfalls and Leads to Address Them

Nera¹

2023

Preprint

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The dispositional approach to conspiracy mentality suggests that it causally precedes belief in conspiracy theories. I identify two potential pitfalls when analysing this causal relationship: Circular reasoning (in which the two constructs are conflated and interchangeable) and black box explanations (in which conspiracy mentality is merely defined as a disposition to believe in conspiracy theories). I argue that avoiding black box explanations requires theoretical and empirical works to clarify the content and antecedents of conspiracy mentality. To guide future research, I formulate two hypotheses based on a philosophical analysis of conspiracy thinking as well as empirical research. In doing so, I question common assumptions on conspiracy mentality. First, against the assumption that conspiracy mentality is unidimensional, I propose that it may be better conceptualised as a multidimensional construct. Second, against the assumption that conspiracy mentality unidirectionally causes conspiracy theory beliefs, I propose that this relationship might be bidirectional. [Accepted for publication as a research spotlight in Zeitschrift für Psychologie]

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Section: The Antecedents Of Conspiracy Mentalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing the Causation Between Conspiracy Mentality and Conspiracy Beliefs: Potential Pitfalls and Leads to Address Them

Nera¹

2023

Preprint

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“…Instead, they contented themselves with sharing the conspiracy theory amongst each other and posting negative reviews on the restaurant's Google page (Mercier & Altay, 2022). This suggests that for their adherents, the real function of the PizzaGate conspiracy theory was tied to the social experiences it engendered rather than a genuine attempt to uncover facts about the world (Wagner‐Egger et al., 2022).…”

Section: Two Folk Psychological Concepts Of Beliefmentioning

confidence: 99%

Symbolic belief in social cognition

Westra

2023

Philosophical Perspectives

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Keeping track of what others believe is a central part of human social cognition. However, the social relevance of those beliefs can vary a great deal. Some belief attributions mostly tell us about what a person is likely to do next. Other belief attributions tell us more about a person's social identity. In this paper, I argue that we cope with this challenge by employing two distinct concepts of belief in our everyday social interactions. The epistemic concept of belief is primarily used to keep track of what other people take to be true, and this informs how we predict and interpret their behaviors. The symbolic concept of belief, in contrast, is primarily used as a means of signaling one's social identity to other members of one's community. In turn, community members closely monitor each other's symbolic beliefs as a means of enforcing social norms.

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“…This tendency, called conspiracy belief (e.g., Hornsey et al, 2022), seems to be based on a monological network of non-mainstream explanations of societal events (Williams et al, 2022). People high in conspiracy belief regularly form communities with group norms that are related to the specific conspiracy theory (e.g., Wagner-Egger et al, 2022). However, these specific group norms are not the focus in this article.…”

Section: Conspiracy Beliefs and Adherence To Prosocial Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Think About It! Deliberation Reduces the Negative Relation Between Conspiracy Belief and Adherence to Prosocial Norms

Pummerer

Ditrich

Winter

et al. 2022

Social Psychological and Personality Science

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People believing in conspiracy theories question mainstream thoughts and behavior, but it is unknown whether it is also linked to lower adherence to the prosocial norms of the broader society. Furthermore, interventions targeting correlates of the belief in conspiracy theories so far are scarce. In four preregistered, mixed-design experiments ( Ntotal = 1,659, Nobservations = 8,902), we tested whether believing in conspiracy theories is related to lower prosocial norm adherence and whether deliberation about the reason for the norms mitigates this relationship. Across four studies with the U.S. samples, we found that believing in conspiracy theories correlated negatively with prosocial norm adherence in the control condition, which was less pronounced after deliberation (effect size of interaction: d = 0.16). Whether the norm was related to the law or not did not moderate this effect. Results point toward possible ways of mitigating negative correlates and potentially also consequences of believing in conspiracy theories.

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Awake together: Sociopsychological processes of engagement in conspiracist communities

Cited by 19 publications

References 50 publications

Analysing the Causation Between Conspiracy Mentality and Conspiracy Beliefs: Potential Pitfalls and Leads to Address Them

Analysing the Causation Between Conspiracy Mentality and Conspiracy Beliefs: Potential Pitfalls and Leads to Address Them

Symbolic belief in social cognition

Think About It! Deliberation Reduces the Negative Relation Between Conspiracy Belief and Adherence to Prosocial Norms

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