The psychological study of conspiracy theories: Strengths and limitations

“Trust me, do not trust anyone”: how epistemic mistrust and credulity are associated with conspiracy mentality

“…scientific organizations, traditional media), which would lead to a challenging of conspiracy beliefs. It is through the coupled relationship between mistrust and credulity that the “rabbit hole” of radicalized conspiracy ideation is opened up (van Prooijen et al ., 2022 ).…”

“…The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has fueled considerable public discourse concerning the foundations of conspiracy theories (CTs) and their potentially detrimental effects. Over recent years, the exploration of individual difference factors associated with the endorsement of CTs has become a pivotal area of psychological research (van Prooijen & Imhoff, 2022 ). As recent empirical syntheses have pointed out, a rapidly growing aspect of the field involves the investigation of limited trust capacities that are associated with the endorsement of a conspiracy mentality (Bowes et al ., 2023 ; Pilch et al ., 2023 ).…”

“…Since the emergence of modern research into CTs around three decades ago, it has been established that people who believe in one CT are very likely to believe in other CTs, even if they are completely different in content (Abalakina-Paap et al , 1999 ; Goertzel, 1994 ). This interrelationship is now considered one of the most crucial insights of psychological research on conspiracy-related phenomena (van Prooijen & Imhoff, 2022 ).…”

“…This model argues that a conspiracy mentality may be associated with a weak capacity to critique the accuracy or validity of information in the social transmission of knowledge (van Prooijen, 2019). Consistent with this approach, several studies have found that individuals with strong conspiracy beliefs tend to interpret nonsensical statements as profound and are more likely to believe in the existence of supernatural phenomena ( e.g ., reincarnation, astrology) (van Prooijen et al ., 2022 ). For instance, in a representative survey in Germany, the emergence of a COVID-19-related conspiracy mentality was associated with greater beliefs in superstition and esotericism, even after controlling for other influencing factors (Pickel et al ., 2022 ).…”

On the Usefulness of the Conspiracy Mentality Concept

“…The past few years have witnessed an explosion of (predominantly, but not only psychological) research on conspiracy beliefs. As Nera rightfully criticizes, a lot of this research has not eliminated but contributed to a lack of clarity by carrying forward the normative baggage of defining conspiracy theories as inherently misguided, by relying on cross-sectional correlations when testing causal theories (van Prooijen & Imhoff, 2022), and by not differentiating between the endorsement of very specific conspiracy theories and a more generalized propensity to suspect such conspiracies, most frequently labeled “conspiracy mentality” (Imhoff et al, 2022).…”