The DOI matches its Crossref record; 103 of the 105 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Analytic thinking reduces belief in conspiracy theories
Open accessAbstract
Belief in conspiracy theories has been associated with a range of negative health, civic, and social outcomes, requiring reliable methods of reducing such belief. Thinking dispositions have been highlighted as one possible factor associated with belief in conspiracy theories, but actual relationships have only been infrequently studied. In Study 1, we examined associations between belief in conspiracy theories and a range of measures of thinking dispositions in a British sample (N=990). Results indicated that a stronger belief in conspiracy theories was significantly associated with lower analytic thinking and open-mindedness and greater intuitive thinking. In Studies 2-4, we examined the causational role played by analytic thinking in relation to conspiracist ideation. In Study 2 (N=112), we showed that a verbal fluency task that elicited analytic thinking reduced belief in conspiracy theories. In Study 3 (N=189), we found that an alternative method of eliciting analytic thinking, which related to cognitive disfluency, was effective at reducing conspiracist ideation in a student sample. In Study 4, we replicated the results of Study 3 among a general population sample (N=140) in relation to generic conspiracist ideation and belief in conspiracy theories about the July 7, 2005, bombings in London. Our results highlight the potential utility of supporting attempts to promote analytic thinking as a means of countering the widespread acceptance of conspiracy theories.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Conspiracy belief is correlated with lower levels of analytic thinking (Swami, Voracek, Stieger, Tran, & Furnham, 2014)”
From The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories (2017) · cites this paper as Swami, Voracek, Stieger, Tran, & Furnham, 2014
In the citing paper
“Recent research has linked individual differences in analytic thinking with skepticism about various epistemically suspect information, such as fake news (Pennycook & Rand, 2019;2020), religious and paranormal beliefs (Pennycook et al., 2016;Shenhav et al., 2012), conspiracy theories (Swami et al., 2014), and pseudo-profound bullshit (Pennycook et al., 2015;Pennycook & Rand, 2020).”
From The detection of political deepfakes (2022) · cites this paper as Swami et al., 2014
In the citing paper
“This result extends prior research that associated analytic thinking with higher scrutiny towards other post-truth phenomena, such as fake news (Pennycook & Rand, 2019, 2020) and conspiracy theories (Swami et al., 2014).”
From The detection of political deepfakes (2022) · cites this paper as Swami et al., 2014
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences
Muller, K. E., & Cohen, J. (1989) · Technometrics · doi:10.2307/1270020 · Cited by 99,603
Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences
Cohen, J. (1990) · Computers Environment and Urban Systems · doi:10.1016/0198-9715(90)90050-4 · Cited by 65,417
Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.).
Lachenbruch, P. A., & Cohen, J. (1989) · Journal of the American Statistical Association · doi:10.2307/2290095 · Cited by 37,421
Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix.
Campbell, D. T., & Fiske, D. W. (1959) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/h0046016 · Cited by 17,116
Chaiken, S. (1980) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.39.5.752 · Cited by 5,516
Cacioppo, J. T., & Petty, R. E. (1982) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.42.1.116 · Cited by 5,359
Individual differences in reasoning: Implications for the rationality debate?
Stanovich, K. E., & West, R. F. (2000) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x00003435 · Cited by 4,481
Culture and systems of thought: Holistic versus analytic cognition.
Nisbett, R. E., Peng, K., Choi, I., & Norenzayan, A. (2001) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.108.2.291 · Cited by 4,263
Cacioppo, J. T., Petty, R. E., Feinstein, J. A., & Jarvis, W. B. G. (1996) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.119.2.197 · Cited by 2,517 · cited 2×
“Need for cognition was mea sured using the 18 item Need for Cognition Scale (NCogS; Cacioppo et al., 1996).”
Individual differences in intuitive-experiential and analytical-rational thinking styles.
Epstein, S. J., Pacini, R., Denes-Raj, V., & Heier, H. (1996) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.71.2.390 · Cited by 1,928
Flagged first, then by citations
2 of the 105 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 701–724 of 724
Rao, H., & Greve, H. R. (2026) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780197772324.002.0001
Online Conspiracy Theorizing as Conversational Coordination
Rao, H., & Greve, H. R. (2026) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780197772324.003.0008
Fake News, Rumors, Folk Theories
Rao, H., & Greve, H. R. (2026) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780197772324.003.0003
Online Conspiracy Rabbit Hole as a Semantic Cascade
Rao, H., & Greve, H. R. (2026) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780197772324.003.0006
Rao, H., & Greve, H. R. (2026) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780197772324.002.0006
How We Studied Conspiracy Theories
Rao, H., & Greve, H. R. (2026) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780197772324.005.0002
Rao, H., & Greve, H. R. (2026) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780197772324.002.0007
Rao, H., & Greve, H. R. (2026) · doi:10.1093/9780197772324.001.0001
Karlsson, P., Josefsson, T., Svensson, S., & Andersson, L. (2026) · Scandinavian Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/sjop.70120
Linguistic Signature of Superspreaders
Rao, H., & Greve, H. R. (2026) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780197772324.003.0007
Aesthetic Democracy in Practice
Mohammad-Roe, S., & Tørnby, H. (2026) · Advances in computational intelligence and robotics book series · doi:10.4018/979-8-2600-2163-7.ch008
Priming Resistance to Persuasion decreases adherence to Conspiracy TheoriesPreprint
Varet, F., Monaco, G. L., Adam‐Troian, J., Bonetto, É., & Girandola, F. (2018) · OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints)
Laurent, V., Rusinek, S., & Kosinski, T. (2026) · Psychological Reports · doi:10.1177/00332941261464066
Alper, S., Konukoğlu, K., Bayrak, F., Yener, C., Bağcı, E. S., Doğruyol, B., & Yılmaz, O. (2026) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/01461672261463908
Miluk, B., & Gosa, M. M. (2026) · Journal of Health Communication · doi:10.1080/10810730.2026.2701885
The Distinct Nomological Pathways of Psychological Factors of Conspiracy Mentality
Mashuri, A., & Zaduqisti, E. (2026) · Psychology and Developing Societies · doi:10.1177/09713336261467856
Marini, M., Salvati, M., & Sbordone, F. L. (2026) · Journal of Homosexuality · doi:10.1080/00918369.2026.2695664
Georgiou, N., Maddox, G. A., Christian, M. W., Borgström, J., Moritz, S., & Balzan, R. P. (2026) · Journal of Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1080/20445911.2026.2712257
“The REIm-13 was used to gauge whether people preferred to use an analytical or intuitive thinking style (as per Georgiou et al., 2020 , 2021; Georgiou et al., 2023; see also Swami et al., 2014).”
Huo, D., Du, X., Zhang, Y., & Chang, R. (2026) · Transportation Research Part F Traffic Psychology and Behaviour · doi:10.1016/j.trf.2026.103797
van der Velden, P. G., van Dam, A., van Eerten, J.-J., & Grootens, K. P. (2026) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0353935
““ It is a subset of false beliefs in which the ultimate cause of an event is believed to be due to a plot by multiple actors working together with a clear goal in mind, often unlawfully and in secret ” [3].”
Auliawan, F., Pambudi, K. S., & Thontowi, H. (2026) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.7497939
Hekmati, A., Stanc, L. L., Salvia, É., Borst, G., & Cassotti, M. (2026) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-11124803/v1
Erceg, N., Kunst, J. R., Kostanić, M., & Galić, Z. (2026) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.7661495
Metadata
- Authors
- Swami, V., Voracek, M., Stieger, S., Tran, U. S., & Furnham, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Westminster (GB)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Swami, Viren
- Venue
- Cognition
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2014-12
- Volume
- 133
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 572-585
- ISSN
- 0010-0277 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1965444852
- Cited by
- 726
- References
- 105
- Citations by year
- 2026: 49 · 2025: 77 · 2024: 81 · 2023: 71 · 2022: 122 · 2021: 100 · 2020: 94 · 2019: 43 · 2018: 37 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 15
- FWCI
- 55.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- nbn-resolving.de
- Locations
- Cognition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- WestminsterResearch (University of Westminster) (acceptedVersion)
- KOPS (University of Konstanz) (submittedVersion)
- 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 › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Keywords
- conspiracy theories, analytical thinking, conspiracist ideation, intuitive thinking, open-mindedness, verbal fluency
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Culture, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Personality, Thinking, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
