Why should we try to think like scientists? Scientific reasoning and susceptibility to epistemically suspect beliefs and cognitive biases

Čavojová, Vladimíra; Šrol, Jakub; Jurkovič, Marek

doi:10.1002/acp.3595

Cited by 67 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Unwarranted or epistemically suspect beliefs including conspiracy beliefs have previously been referred to as 'contaminated mindware' 54 . These beliefs have repeatedly been shown to be strongly interrelated [55][56][57] , and to share common predictors, such as ontological confusions 56,58 , the inhibition of analytical reasoning 59 , preference of intuitive over analytic thought 60 , lower levels of scientific reasoning 55,61 and anti-science attitudes 58 . In this section, these beliefs, reasoning processes, and attitudes will be reviewed with regards to belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories.…”

Section: Beliefs Biases and Attitudesmentioning

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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Section: Beliefs Biases and Attitudesmentioning

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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“…First, we focus on the key question of whether anxiety and lack of control are related to the increased endorsement of coronavirus-specific conspiracy theories and epistemically suspect beliefs in general. As the endorsement of all three types of epistemically suspect beliefs is strongly intercorrelated (see also Čavojová et al, 2020;Lobato et al, 2014;Šrol, n.d.), we have calculated a single composite score by averaging the ratings on all 19 items of the epistemically suspect belief questionnaire (M = 2.52, SD = 0.68, α = .89). Both anxiety and lack of control are consistently positively related to the endorsement of coronavirus-specific conspiracies as well as generic epistemically suspect beliefs.…”

Section: Correlates Of the Coronavirus-specific And Generic Epistemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An open question is whether threatening events prompt people to adopt conspiracy beliefs pertaining to that specific situation or rather they stimulate a mentality in which people endorse more epistemically suspect beliefs 1 in general. Previous research showed that people who believe in some specific conspiracy theories are very prone to hold other non-related conspiracy beliefs as well (Swami, Chamorro-Premuzic, & Furnham, 2010), and they are also much more likely to accept paranormal and pseudoscientific claims (e.g., Čavojová et al, 2020;Lobato et al, 2014;Šrol, n.d.). A study by Lewandowsky, Oberauer, and Gignac (2013;however, see Landrum & Olshansky, 2019) further shows that conspiratorial ideation may be the key factor in explaining the rejection of well-established scientific findings and subsequently, the endorsement of pseudoscientific beliefs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The term "epistemically suspect beliefs" is used to refer to categories of beliefs which are based on claims that either cannot be empirically tested, are unsupported, or disproven by modern science. These are mainly thought to comprise various paranormal, conspiracy, and pseudoscientific beliefs (e.g.,Čavojová, Šrol, & Jurkovič, 2020;Lobato, Mendoza, Sims, & Chin, 2014;Pennycook, Fugelsang, & Koehler, 2015; Šrol, n.d.) …”

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confidence: 99%

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When we are worried, what are we thinking? Anxiety, lack of control, and conspiracy beliefs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Šrol¹,

Mikušková²,

Čavojová³

2020

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Threatening events (hurricanes, disease outbreaks, famines) are associated with an upsurge of conspiracy beliefs that provide people with simple explanations to tackle the feelings of anxiety and lack of control. In our study (N = 783), conducted shortly after the first cases of COVID-19 were identified in our country, we examined whether people with higher anxiety and lack of control concerning the pandemic adopt more conspiracy beliefs about the origin, spread and potential cure of the new coronavirus. We also tested whether the rise of coronavirus-specific conspiracy beliefs is associated with the endorsement of generic epistemically suspect (i.e. paranormal, conspiracy, and pseudoscientific) beliefs as well. Our results show that higher perception of risk and lower trust in institutions concerning the COVID-19 pandemic were related to the feelings of anxiety and lack of control which in turn predicted an increase in coronavirus-specific conspiracy beliefs. Importantly, these beliefs were further related to the higher endorsement of generic paranormal, conspiracy, and pseudoscientific beliefs. The results show how threatening events, such as the current pandemic, lead to a rise in various epistemically suspect beliefs by increasing people’s feelings of anxiety and lack of control.

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“…It is worth noting that most previous research on the topic did not control for familiarity with the presented pseudoscientific statements (Čavojová, Šrol, & Jurkovič, 2019;Fasce & Picó, 2019a;Lobato et al, 2014;Majima, 2015;Mercier, Majima, & Miton, 2018;Swami et al, 2012Swami et al, , 2016van Elk, 2019). In some studies, the construction of the scales implied knowledge about all or some pseudoscientific claims by including items starting with "I believe" (Lewandowsky et al, 2013;Rutjens et al, 2018) or by directly asking participants to use their general knowledge about a particular field (Bensley et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do you believe what you have been told? Morality and scientific literacy as predictors of pseudoscience susceptibility

Piejka

Okruszek

2020

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Summary The aim of the current study was to examine the antecedents of susceptibility to pseudoscientific information. Participants were asked to assess their perceived probability of and familiarity with statements containing popular science misconceptions and pseudoscientific claims, which were fabricated for the study. Measures of scientific literacy, moral inclinations, need for closure, and a set of additional variables were collected. Analysis of the results showed that susceptibility to known pseudoscientific theories predicted falling for novel unwarranted claims. Scientific literacy strongly predicted lower pseudoscience susceptibility of all types. Finally, participants' moral inclinations were found to be a strong predictor of different types of pseudoscientific statements.

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Why should we try to think like scientists? Scientific reasoning and susceptibility to epistemically suspect beliefs and cognitive biases

Cited by 67 publications

References 51 publications

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

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

When we are worried, what are we thinking? Anxiety, lack of control, and conspiracy beliefs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

Do you believe what you have been told? Morality and scientific literacy as predictors of pseudoscience susceptibility

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