Predicting COVID-19 conspiracist ideation from the Dark Tetrad traits

Kay, Cameron S.

doi:10.31234/osf.io/j3m2y

Cited by 15 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Perhaps most critically, the grandiose narcissism latent factorrepresenting the shared variance of the grandiose narcissism measures-and the vulnerable narcissism latent factor-representing the shared variance of the vulnerable narcissism measures-were both associated with the conspiracist ideation latent factor-representing the shared variance of the conspiracist ideation measures. These results add to the modest prior evidence that grandiose narcissism (Cichocka, Marchlewska, & Golec de Zavala, 2016;Kay, 2020Kay, , 2021Malesza, 2020)-and the limited prior evidence that vulnerable narcissism (Jolley & Paterson, 2020;March & Springer, 2019)-are associated with the tendency to believe in conspiracy theories.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Conspiracist ideation was measured using (a) the 15-item Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (BCTI) (Swami et al, 2011) (e.g., "The Apollo moon landings never happened and were staged in a Hollywood film studio"; = .92, ‾ = .43); (b) the 15-item Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCB) (Brotherton, French, & Pickering, 2013) (e.g., "The government is involved in the murder of innocent citizens and/or well-known public figures, and keeps this a secret"; = .93, ‾ = .46); (c) the COVID-19 Conspiracist Ideation Scale (CCIS) (Kay, 2020) (e.g., "Prominent scientists are suppressing the truth about COVID-19"; = .80, ‾ = .45); and (d) the 5-item Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ) (Bruder, Haffke, Neave, Nouripanah, & Imhoff, 2013) (e.g., "Many very important things happen in the world, which the public is never informed about"; = .76, ‾ = .39). Participants responded to the BCTI using a nine-point scale (1 = "completely false"; 9 = "completely true").…”

Section: Conspiracist Ideationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The targets of all treachery: Delusional ideation, paranoia, and the need for uniqueness as mediators between two forms of narcissism and conspiracy beliefs

Kay

2021

Journal of Research in Personality

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A number of recent studies have examined whether those high in grandiose narcissism are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories. Few studies have, however, considered whether those high in vulnerable narcissism are also apt to believe in conspiracy theories, and none have attempted to identify the mechanisms that link these two forms of narcissism to conspiracy beliefs. The present study (NParticipants = 397; NInformants = 460) investigated the relation of both grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism with conspiracist ideation in the context of four theoretically-relevant mediators: (a) delusional ideation, (b) paranoia, (c) the need for uniqueness, and (d) the desire for control. Participants who were higher in grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, seemingly because they were more likely to hold odd and unusual beliefs. There was, likewise, some evidence to suggest that those high in vulnerable narcissism believe in conspiracy theories because they suffer from paranoia, whereas those high in grandiose narcissism believe in conspiracy theories because of a desire to be unique. Together, these results suggest that the conspiracist ideation seen among those high in grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism is a consequence of features that are shared between and unique to each of the two traits.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Conspiracist Ideationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The targets of all treachery: Delusional ideation, paranoia, and the need for uniqueness as mediators between two forms of narcissism and conspiracy beliefs

Kay

2021

Journal of Research in Personality

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“…Personality traits associated with distrust and paranoia 33 , such as the Dark Tetrad traits 30 , and general distrust in authoritieswhether scientists 5,15 , governments 82 including U.S. state governments 22 or other elites 91 and other people 143,144 have been strong predictors of belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, which describe COVID-19 to a varying degree as threat 5 (see Table 1). These low levels of trust become a toxic mix in an environment with a constant threat, boosting the adoption of conspiracy beliefs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Personality traits. People scoring high on the Dark Tetrad traits (e.g., Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism) 29 seem to be more likely to endorse both COVID-19 30 and non-COVID-19related 31,32 conspiracy theories. This may be the result of a tendency of high-scorers to distrust others and entertain odd beliefs and delusions (e.g., believing that other people are able to read one's mind) 33 .…”

Section: Individual Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs: a systematic review

Mulukom¹,

Pummerer²,

Alper³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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100

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COVID-19 conspiracy theories emerged almost immediately after the beginning of the pandemic, and the number of believers does not appear to decline. Believing in these theories can negatively affect adherence to safety guidelines and vaccination intentions, potentially endangering the lives of many. Thus, one part in successfully fighting the pandemic is to understand the antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, which are here presented in a rapid review summarizing research from more than 28 countries. We evaluate the contribution of individual difference variables (demographic variables, personality traits, coping with threat and uncertainty), beliefs, biases, and attitudes (epistemically suspect beliefs, thinking styles and cognitive biases, attitudes towards science), and social factors (group identities, trust in authorities, social media) to COVID-19 conspiracy theories. We discuss the consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs in regard to safeguarding behaviours (hygiene, distancing, and mask-wearing), self-centred (hoarding) and misguided behaviours (pseudoscientific practices), vaccination intentions, mental health and negative social consequences (e.g., discrimination and violence). Differences between countries as well as various conspiracy theories are considered. Summarising, we suggest that belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories is boosted by low levels of trust in a context of threat and low levels of comprehensive, accessible information in a context of uncertainty and unknowns. We conclude that research is urgently needed to address potential interventions to (re-)establish trust and provide accessible information about COVID-19.

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“…We also did not include personality variables, such as narcissism or schizotypal personality traits, to predict adherence to protective guidelines or belief in conspiracy theories. It was not the focus of this project, but recent research has indicated roles for personality features as well (Kay, 2020;Larsen et al, 2020). Finally, we measured the role of perceived knowledge, but were not able to measure actual knowledge of COVID-19.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Trust in scientists and non-populist governments supports COVID-19 information and safeguarding behaviors

Mulukom¹

2020

Preprint

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The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health crisis, and in order to halt it, the spread of the virus needs to be curbed. The World Health Organization and governments have put forward protective guidelines to stop the spread, but adherence to these guidelines is still variable. Through a large survey in twelve countries worldwide (N = 7,755), we show that the information about COVID-19 which is accurate and trustworthy is paramount for the adherence to protective guidelines. Specifically, adherence to safety precautions is predicted by concern, gender, perceived risk, perceived knowledge, and trust in scientists. Adherence to the guidelines was also predicted by distrust in the government and the conspiracy belief that the virus is artificially made; conspiracy thinking predicted self-centered protective behaviors more strongly than safety precautions, however. Conspiracy thinking was predicted by trust in social media, whereas perceived knowledge was associated with trust in reliable COVID-19 websites.

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Predicting COVID-19 conspiracist ideation from the Dark Tetrad traits

Cited by 15 publications

References 26 publications

The targets of all treachery: Delusional ideation, paranoia, and the need for uniqueness as mediators between two forms of narcissism and conspiracy beliefs

The targets of all treachery: Delusional ideation, paranoia, and the need for uniqueness as mediators between two forms of narcissism and conspiracy beliefs

Antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs: a systematic review

Trust in scientists and non-populist governments supports COVID-19 information and safeguarding behaviors

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