The psychological and political correlates of conspiracy theory beliefs

Abstract

Understanding the individual-level characteristics associated with conspiracy theory beliefs is vital to addressing and combatting those beliefs. While researchers have identified numerous psychological and political characteristics associated with conspiracy theory beliefs, the generalizability of those findings is uncertain because they are typically drawn from studies of only a few conspiracy theories. Here, we employ a national survey of 2021 U.S. adults that asks about 15 psychological and political characteristics as well as beliefs in 39 different conspiracy theories. Across 585 relationships examined within both bivariate (correlations) and multivariate (regression) frameworks, we find that psychological traits (e.g., dark triad) and non-partisan/ideological political worldviews (e.g., populism, support for violence) are most strongly related to individual conspiracy theory beliefs, regardless of the belief under consideration, while other previously identified correlates (e.g., partisanship, ideological extremity) are inconsistently related. We also find that the correlates of specific conspiracy theory beliefs mirror those of conspiracy thinking (the predisposition), indicating that this predisposition operates like an ‘average’ of individual conspiracy theory beliefs. Overall, our findings detail the psychological and political traits of the individuals most drawn to conspiracy theories and have important implications for scholars and practitioners seeking to prevent or reduce the impact of conspiracy theories.

Semantic and Causal Relations Between the Conspiracy Mentality and Belief in Conspiracy Theories

“…This has become widely used, providing researchers with a brief, portable scale that is robustly correlated with scales that aggregate beliefs in various conspiracy theories, and which generally displays similar relationships with other variables (e.g., Stasielowicz, 2022; Uscinski et al, 2022). Important questions remain, however, about the relationship between these two types of scales.…”

Disentangling the Relationship Between Conspiracy Mindset Versus Beliefs in Specific Conspiracy Theories

“…There is also overwhelming evidence that people who believe in one CT are more likely to also believe in others (Bruder et al, 2013; Imhoff & Bruder, 2014; Uscinski et al, 2022). Such findings have given rise to the notion that people differ in their general conspiracy mindset, defined as a “general propensity to subscribe to theories blaming a conspiracy of ill-intending individuals or groups for important societal phenomena” (Bruder et al, 2013, p. 2).…”

Christ, Country, and Conspiracies? Christian Nationalism, Biblical Literalism, and Belief in Conspiracy Theories

“…Viewing the world through a Manichean lens, in which good is under threat from evil, is strongly related to support for conspiracy theories (Uscinski et al. 2022). Feeling under threat can also generate feelings of uncertainty regarding the future of the nation or one's place in it, which is also correlated with conspiracy thinking (De Zavala and Federico 2018).…”