Conspiracy theories and the conspiracy mindset: implications for political ideology

Sutton, Robbie M.; Douglas, Karen M.

doi:10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.02.015

Cited by 147 publications

(158 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The results relating to conspiracy beliefs are consistent with the view that people are prone to interpret events in terms of pre-existing belief systems (Sutton & Douglas, 2020;Swami et al, 2017). This phenomenon is likely to have multiple, but related, psychological and sociological explanations.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…Attempts will, therefore, be made to match new evidence to perceived hypotheses of systems of logic (e.g., that there is always something hidden, not being said, or to believe that someone out there aims to benefit from the event) (Byford, 2011;Swami, Chamorro-Premuzic, & Furnham, 2010). For example, those whom adopt CT beliefs which suggest the United States of America entered World War II by inciting the Pearl Harbour attack, are likely to use such events as evidence that the events of 9/11 were also fraudulent on the grounds of being able to draw on 'foreknowledge' (Sutton & Douglas, 2020). As a result, beliefs in one CT has been found to be one of the strongest predictors for future CTs (Swami et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs

Georgiou

Delfabbro

Balzan

2020

Personality and Individual Differences

251

225

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Previous studies have down that erroneous Conspiracy Theory (CT) beliefs develop more strongly in people who have underlying conspiratorial reasoning styles and psychopathological traits and particularly when they are faced with stressful external events (Swami et al., 2013; van Prooijen, 2018). In this study, we test this proposition by examining the individual differences associated with the development of COVID-19-related CT beliefs during the pandemic. A total of 660 adults completed a survey that captured COVID-related CT beliefs and broader conspiracy beliefs, education, perceived stress and attitudes towards government responses. The results showed that COVID-19 related CT beliefs were: strongly related to broader CT beliefs, higher in those with lower levels of education; and, positively (although weakly) correlated with more negative attitudes towards government responses. However, no relationship was found between COVID-19 beliefs and self-reported stress. These findings hold implications for why some people are more likely to be resistant to public health interventions relating to COVID-19. The findings encourage more detailed exploration of the causes and sources of CTs and, in particular, the role of social media use and other information sources in the development and perpetuation of health-related CT beliefs.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs

Georgiou

Delfabbro

Balzan

2020

Personality and Individual Differences

251

225

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…conspiracies is derived from the assumption that conspiratorial thinking can serve political ENDORSEMENT OF CLAIMS ABOUT COVID-19 10 identity and ideology. Conspiracy beliefs can serve psychological needs for certainty, security, and a positive self-image (Douglas et al, 2017), which is why, more recently, researchers have theorized conspiratorial thinking as a generalized political attitude intrinsically related to the sociopolitical world (Imhoff & Bruder, 2014;Imhoff & Lamberty, 2018;Sutton & Douglas, 2020). For example, there is initial evidence that collective narcissism (i.e., the inflated belief in the greatness of one's ingroup, De Zavala et al, 2009) predicts the belief and dissemination of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 (Nowak et al, 2020;Sternisko et al, 2020;Żemojtel-Piotrowska et al, 2020).…”

Section: Political Identity and Alignments Another Motivational Accomentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological underpinnings of pandemic denial - patterns of disagreement with scientific experts in the German public during the COVID-19 pandemic

Rothmund¹,

Ziemer²

2020

Preprint

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We investigated laypersons’ agreement with technical claims about the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 virus and with claims about the risk from COVID-19 in the general public in Germany (N = 1,575) and compared these with the evaluations of scientific experts (N = 128). Using Latent Class Analysis, we distinguished four segments in the general public. Two groups (mainstream and cautious, 73%) are generally consistent with scientific experts in their evaluations. Two groups (doubters and deniers, 27%) differ distinctively from expert evaluations and tend to believe in conspiracies about COVID-19. Deniers (8%) are characterized by low risk assessments, anti-elitist sentiments and low compliance with containment measures. Doubters (19%) are characterized by general uncertainty in the distinction between true and false claims and by low scientific literacy in terms of cognitive ability and style. Our research indicates that conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 cannot be linked to a single and distinct motivational structure.

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“…We argue that -beyond and in addition to the widely discussed link between (farright) ideology and conspiracy belief (see, e.g. van Prooijen et al, 2015;Freeman et al, 2020;Sutton and Douglas, 2020) -it is citizens' populist world-view that fosters conspiracy belief (Castanho Silva et al, 2017;Bergmann, 2018). In particular, we aim to expand previous work by studying the underlying link between citizens' populist attitudes and their conspiracy belief in the realm of COVID-19.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

From Populism to the ‘Plandemic’: Why populists believe in COVID-19 conspiracies

Eberl¹,

Huber²,

Greussing³

2020

Preprint

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Why are COVID-19 conspiracy theories so prevalent? Particularly, why would some citizens ignore scientific evidence and common logic but, instead, be convinced that COVID-19 was a military experiment or spread by 5G signals? Why would they believe that Bill Gates had anything to do with it? In this contribution, we argue that populism is at the centre of these beliefs, as the complex nature of the COVID-19 pandemic makes it an ideal playground for populists’ opposition to scientific and political elites. We use Structural Equation Models and panel survey data (n = 823) from the Austrian Corona Panel Project to test this argument. We demonstrate a negative correlation of populist attitudes with both trust in political and scientific institutions, which, in return, negatively relate to COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs. This results in an overall positive relationship of populist attitudes and conspiracy beliefs that is independent of political ideology. These findings have important implications for elite communication regarding virus mitigation.

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Conspiracy theories and the conspiracy mindset: implications for political ideology

Abstract: The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record.

Cited by 147 publications

References 46 publications

COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs

COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs

Psychological underpinnings of pandemic denial - patterns of disagreement with scientific experts in the German public during the COVID-19 pandemic

From Populism to the ‘Plandemic’: Why populists believe in COVID-19 conspiracies

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