The DOI matches its Crossref record; 33 of the 34 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Unanswered questions: A preliminary investigation of personality and individual difference predictors of 9/11 conspiracist beliefs
Abstract
Abstract Given the widespread appeal of conspiratorial beliefs, it is surprising that very little empirical research has examined the psychological variables associated with such beliefs. In the present study, we examined individual and demographic predictors of beliefs in conspiracy theories concerning the September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon among a representative British sample of 254 women and men. Results of structural equation modelling showed that 9/11 conspiracist beliefs were positively associated with belief in other conspiracy theories, exposure to 9/11 conspiracist ideas, political cynicism, defiance of authority and the Big Five personality factor of Agreeableness. In total, a model including demographics, personality and individual difference variables explained over 50% of the variance in 9/11 conspiracist ideas. The implications of these findings for the literature on conspiracy theories are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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“Conspiracy theory beliefs are linked to political alienation and cynicism [10-12]”
From The dark side of social movements: social identity, non-conformity, and the lure of conspiracy theories (2020) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“by challenging official narratives conspiracy theories can actually undermine people's trust in broader societal structures [cf.56] leading to alienation and anomie [10-12, 57, 58] which in turn is linked to non-normative political activism [17**,18].”
From The dark side of social movements: social identity, non-conformity, and the lure of conspiracy theories (2020) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“People who endorse one conspiracy are known to be likely to also endorse multiple others”
From The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science (2013) · cites this paper as [45]
In the citing paper
“conspiracist ideation has been found to be associated with stable personality variables, such as a subset of the ‘Big Five’ [45] or paranoid ideation and schizotypy [47]”
From The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science (2013) · cites this paper as [45]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Effects of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Vaccination Intentions
Jolley, D., & Douglas, K. M. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089177 · Cited by 1,232
“Psychologists are learning more about the traits and characteristics associated with beliefs in conspiracy theories more generally, such as mistrust, anomie, political cynicism and Machiavellianism [8], [20], [31], [50], and it will be useful to know if the same, or different factors predict anti-vaccine conspiracy be…”
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“As such, a conspiracy mentality then describes the general propensity to subscribe to theories blaming a conspiracy of ill-intending individuals or groups for important societal phenomena or, in more abstract terms, the tendency to subscribe to “general conspiracist beliefs” (Swami et al., 2010).”
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“Importantly, the endorsement of specific conspiracy theories is associated with greater beliefs in other conspiracy theories (Swami et al., 2010), even if they are fully fictitious (Swami et al., 2011, Study 2).”
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“Scores on this measure have been shown to have a one dimensional factor structure with good internal con sistency (Swami et al., 2010, 2011) and are very strongly correlated with scores from a generic measure of conspir acist ideation (r = .88; Brotherton et al., 2013).”
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Swami, V., Chamorro‐Premuzic, T., & Furnham, A.
- Affiliations
- HELP University (MY)
- Goldsmiths University of London (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Swami, Viren
- Venue
- Applied Cognitive Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-05-15
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 749-761
- ISSN
- 0888-4080 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0720
- OpenAlex
- W2142313870
- Cited by
- 499
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 63 · 2022: 54 · 2021: 60 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 49 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 18.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Applied Cognitive Psychology (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- conspiracy theories, September 11 attacks, conspiracy beliefs, personality, individual differences, political cynicism, agreeableness, Big Five personality traits, demographic predictors
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