The conspiracy-effect: Exposure to conspiracy theories (about global warming) decreases pro-social behavior and science acceptance

“For example, recent research has shown that reading information about specific conspiracy theories can decrease people's intention to vote and vaccinate (Jolley & Douglas, 2014).”

“For example, a number of recent studies have revealed that belief in one conspiracy is highly predictive of belief in other conspiracies (Goertzel, 1994; Swami et al., 2011).”

“Indeed , while some conspiracy theories are merely false, others are based on beliefs that are not only false but also harmful (Maibach, 2012; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009).”

“van der Linden S, Leiserowitz A, Rosenthal S, Maibach E (2017b) Inoculating the public against misinformation about climate change.”

“…unwanted persuasion (e.g., climate change or vaccination) to the manipulation techniques that underpin most fake news such as using emotional language (Brady et al., 2017), conspiratorial reasoning (Lewandowsky et al., 2013; van der Linden, 2015) or impersonating experts online (Goga et al., 2015).”

“…was used twice, conspiratorial reasoning (theorizing that small groups are working in secret against the common good, see Hofstadter 1964; van der Linden 2015) twice, demonization of the out-group (Atkinson 2005) once, whataboutism (discrediting via hyprocisy accusations or the ‘tu…”

“Furthermore, in experimental studies of conspiracy theories, behavioral measurements are also lacking (for an exception, see Van der Linden, 2015).”

“More recently, experimental studies started to provide evidence for the effects of the confrontation with conspiracy theories with the aim to establish causality (e.g., Einstein & Glick, 2015; Jolly & Douglas, 2014a; Van der Linden, 2015).”

“, that scientists doctored the data) diminishes people’s intentions to reduce their carbon footprint (42, 81, 158).”

“…theories, such as those doubting the scientific facts about anthropogenic climate change (Lewandowsky et al., 2013a,b; Jolley and Douglas, 2014b; Van der Linden, 2015; van Prooijen et al., 2015) and medical conspiracies (Oliver and Wood, 2014a; Pavlova and Silbereisen, 2015; Galliford and…”

“In one study, van der Linden (2015A) provides empirical support for the two-dimensional factor structure of risk perception and further shows that each dimension may have different antecedents.”

“…can have downstream effects on attitudes and behavior, such as undermining climate change mitigation (Cook, Lewandowsky, and Ecker 2017; van der Linden 2015), instigating violence (Jolley and Paterson 2020), and lowering vaccination intentions and compliance with public health guidelines…”

“Studies show that belief in conspiracy theories is associated with lower possibility in engaging in socially desirable activities connected to those theories (Van der Linden, 2015) and in COVID-19 pandemics, with more hoarding (Imhoff & Lamberty, 2020).”

“Since people who believe in conspiracy theories are characterised by extreme scepticism and a lack of faith in authority, they often reject scientifically established facts, such as those related to, for example, climate change (e.g. van der Linden, 2015; van Prooijen, 2019).”

“…climate and vaccination science leads to disillusionment with scientists and, in turn, reluctance to act in accordance with their findings—for example, by taking measures to mitigate climate change, or by vaccinating one’s children ( Jolley & Douglas, 2014a, 2014b, 2017; van der Linden, 2015).”

“On the contrary, it has been shown that the mere exposure to conspiracy theories involving global warming decreases pro-environmental decision making and the intention to reduce one’s carbon footprint (Jolley and Douglas 2013; van der Linden 2015).”

“Although some conspiracy theories may be considered harmless, research has shown that belief in conspiracy theories is associated with negative social, health, and civic outcomes [2], including more acceptance of violent behaviour [3] and a decrease in prosocial behaviour [4].”

“The recent amplification of conspiracy theories on social media and internet forums has led to an increase in attention paid to how these stories circulate [26][27][28][29][30], and engendered discussions of the impact these stories may have on decision making [31][32][33].”

“Creating and spreading conspiracy theories, i.e., blaming a small, secretive and nefarious organization for events going on in the world (Lewandowsky et al., 2013; van der Linden, 2015).”

“…et al., 2019; Galliford & Furnham, 2017; Hart & Graether, 2018; Imhoff & Bruder, 2014; Miller et al. 2016; Ståhl & van Prooijen, 2018; van der Linden, 2015; van der Linden et al., 2020; Wagner-Egger & Bangerter, 2007; however, for an example of ―left-wing bias‖, see Krouwel et al., 2017).”

“The increased endorsement of conspiracy theories after feeling ostracized may exacerbate such notorious effects because past research has shown that beliefs in conspiracy theories hold the potential to breed aggression and inhibit prosocial behaviors (van der Linden, 2015).”

“Some have argued that the key psychological feature of conspiracy theorists is a “monological belief system” in which everything connects to everything else [3,39,42].”

“They can lower support for climate action (van der Linden, 2015), decrease one’s intent to reduce one’s carbon footprint (Jolley & Douglas, 2014), and decrease trust in government (Einstein & Glick, 2014).”

“Dovetailing with the portrait painted by these correlational data are experimental data showing that exposure to conspiracy theories decreases various prosocial actions, including donation intentions (van der Linden, 2015) and vaccination intentions (Jolley & Douglas, 2014).”

“For instance, both Goldberg et al. (2019) and van der Linden (2015) examined people’s perception of scientific agreement or consensus on human-caused climate change as an outcome variable.”

“As mere exposure to conspiracy theories tends to increase belief in them, algorithms can create vulnerabilities in people who may not have initial inclinations toward those theories (Jolley & Douglas, 2014; Jolley et al., 2020; Kim & Cao, 2016; van der Linden, 2015).”

“Another study has shown that climate change conspiracy theories also reduce intentions to sign a petition to help reduce the impact of global warming (van der Linden, 2015).”

“…(e.g., penalize China vs. devote more public funds to researchers studying zoonotic disease transmission); and (3) testing for the presence of a “conspiracy effect” whereby exposure to conspiracy rhetoric reduces individuals’ willingness to engage in prosocial actions (van der Linden, 2015).”

“…2010; Salmon et al., 2005), those who share conspiracies about HIV/AIDS can have negative attitudes about its prevention and treatment (Bogart, Wagner, Galvan, & Banks, 2010), and exposure to conspiracy theories about global warming can result in less acceptance of science (van der Linden, 2015).”

“or by watching a sceptical ‘climate conspiracy’ video [32].”

“Researchers find that just exposure to climate change conspiracy theories can have a harmful effect on climate opinions and behaviors (Jolley and Douglas, 2014; van der Linden, 2015).”

“Nonetheless, the extant literature has focused heavily on some conspiracy theories, such as those regarding climate change 63–65 , Barack Obama’s birth certificate 12, 13, 66 , and the terror attacks of 9/11/2001 67–69 , oftentimes attempting to draw generalizable inferences about the broader…”

“…found that belief in conspiracies correlates with the rejection of science and endorsement of pseudoscience (Lewandowsky et al., 2013a,b; Lobato et al., 2014; van der Linden, 2015; Lobato and Zimmerman, 2019) and to a general attitude toward science as lacking credibility (Hartman et al., 2017).”

“Understanding of the greenhouse mechanism and perceived consensus both have a strong influence on acceptance of the reality of human-caused global warming, and support for mitigation policies (Ranney and Clark, 2016; van der Linden, 2015).”

“…thinking (e.g., Abalakina-Paap et al., 1999; Goertzel, 1994; Swami et al., 2011; van der Linden et al., 2020; van Prooijen et al., 2015), or how exposure to conspiracy theories affects (anti)social beliefs and behavior (van der Linden, 2015; see Douglas et al., 2019, for an extensive review).”

“All study participants were Stony Brook University (SBU) undergraduates Frontiers in Psychiatry | www.frontiersin.org 2 August 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 698147 COVID-19 CT, Conspiratorial thinking related to COVID-19; COVID-19 CT # Items, number of CT items endorsed as either “Probably True (4)” or “Definitely True (…”

“Conspiracy theories are not socially innocuous: aside from obvious political effects, endorsement of conspiracy theories is associated with rejection of science and unwillingness to donate to prosocial causes (van der Linden, 2015).”

“However, a limitation of existing research is that it has typically measured intentions rather than behaviours (with the exception of van der Linden, 2015).”

“Since beliefs in dubious ideas lead to negative medical, social, and political outcomes (Jolley et al., 2019; Oliver & Wood, 2014b; van der Linden, 2015), understanding beliefs in misinformation, antiscientific claims, and conspiracy theories has become a critical area of study for researchers…”

“Even though Wood et al. (2012) were careful in explaining their central finding, it is often evoked in the academic debate to illustrate how irrational it is to believe in CTs (Brotherton, French, & Pickering, 2013; Swami, Voracek, Stieger, Tran, & Furnham, 2014; van der Linden, 2015).”

“In the context of climate change and pro-environmental action, conspiracy theories are negatively related to intentions to reduce one’s carbon footprint (Jolley & Douglas, 2014) and pro-environmental behavior (Van der Linden, 2015).”

“…explored decreased prosocial behavior as another potential dimension of negative social outcomes associated with COVID-19 conspiracy theories, based on some previous partial evidence for the link between conspiracy theory endorsement and prosociality (van der Linden, 2015; Oleksy et al., 2021).”

“For example, it has been shown that conspiratorial thinking is related to the rejection of climate science (Lewandowsky et al., 2013a,b; van der Linden, 2015).”

“Conspiracy theories can have broad negative consequences for society through the rejection of scientific evidence and the associated poor health choices (e.g., see van der Linden, 2015).”

“For example, exposure to climate change conspiracy theories reduced science acceptance and pro-environmental behaviours (van der Linden, 2015).”

“Exposure to conspiracy theories can reduce prosocial behavior (van der Linden, 2015), while increasing intentions to engage in anti-social behavior such as petty crime (Jolley et al., 2019).”

“Believing in conspiracy theories around climate change has been shown to negatively affect both one’s acceptance of science and the adherent’s prosocial behavior (van der Linden 2015).”

“Conservatives report lower trust in science than liberals on general trust in science measures (Nadelson et al., 2014), as well as lower trust in science regarding certain issues, such as climate change (van der Linden, 2015a, 2015b) and evolution (Nisbet et al., 2015).”

“Furthermore, exposure to hoaxes manipulates the nonpublic, causing them to employ heuristic decisionmaking as they oversimplify an issue and the related problems in an effort to complete a cursory processing of the issue (van der Linden, 2015).”

“…claims have led people to use ineffective, sometimes dangerous treatments (Lilienfeld, 2007); and endorsement of conspiracy theories can lead to inaction in the face of a serious existential threat, as in accepting the belief that anthropogenic global warming is a hoax (Van der Linden, 2015).”

“…claims in general (Lewandowsky et al., 2013), and lower prosociality and reduced pro-environmental behaviour (Douglas & Sutton, 2015; Uscinski et al., 2017; Van der Linden, 2015), to mention a few (for a recent review on the apparent effects of conspiracy beliefs see: Douglas et al. 2019).”

“For example, studies show that exposure to conspiracy theories about climate change or vaccines can reduce people’s intention to limit their carbon footprint or to vaccinate themselves or a child against disease (Jolley & Douglas, 2014; van der Linden, 2015).”

“…are attributions or explanations purporting that an agent (individual, group, or organization) is deliberately and intentionally plotting to accomplish a sinister goal despite other more probable explanations or strong evidence against these beliefs (Aaronivitch, 2009; Van der Linden, 2015).”

“…can have (e.g., exacerbating vaccine refusal and climate-change denial; Donzelli et al., 2018; Loomba et al., 2021; Simonov et al., 2022; van der Linden, 2015), substantial research has gone into understanding the conditions under which people form misinformed beliefs, and reject or…”

“Antibiotics kill viruses (Collett, Pappas, Evans, & Hayden, 1999), vaccines cause autism (Ruiz & Bell, 2014), and global climate change is a conspiracy (van der Linden, 2015).”

“Belief in them decreases people’s trust in experts and scientific knowledge (Lewandowsky et al., 2013; Van der Linden, 2015), drives climate science denialism (Uscinski et al., 2017), lowers people’s willingness to engage in politics (Jolley and Douglas, 2014a; Uscinski and Parent, 2014), is…”