Beliefs in conspiracies
Abstract
This study used canonical correlation to examine the relationship of 11 individual difference variables to two measures of beliefs in conspiracies. Undergraduates were administered a questionnaire that included these two measures (beliefs in specific conspiracies and attitudes toward the existence of conspiracies) and scales assessing the 11 variables. High levels of anomie, authoritarianism, and powerlessness, along with a low level of self‐esteem, were related to beliefs in specific conspiracies, whereas high levels of external locus of control and hostility, along with a low level of trust, were related to attitudes toward the existence of conspiracies in general. These findings support the idea that beliefs in conspiracies are related to feelings of alienation, powerlessness, hostility, and being disadvantaged. There was no support for the idea that people believe in conspiracies because they provide simplified explanations of complex events.
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Conspiracy theories are not only a symptom but also a cause of the feelings of alienation and anomie with which they are correlated.
“Thus, it is plausible that they are not only a symptom but also a cause of the feelings of alienation and anomie—a feeling of personal unrest and lack of understanding of the social world—with which they are correlated (e.g., Abalakina-Paap et al., 1999).”
From The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories (2017) · cites this paper as Abalakina-Paap et al., 1999
Powerlessness is associated with beliefs in conspiracy theories.
“Research has demonstrated that powerlessness is associated with beliefs in conspiracy theories [22], [31]”
From The Effects of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Vaccination Intentions (2014) · cites this paper as [31]
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.
“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]”
From The Effects of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Vaccination Intentions (2014) · cites this paper as [31]
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Jardina, A. E., & Traugott, M. W. (2018) · The Journal of Race Ethnicity and Politics · doi:10.1017/rep.2018.25 · Cited by 113 · see citing works
Klein, C., Clutton, P., & Dunn, A. (2019) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0225098 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Lantian, A., Müller, D., Nurra, C., Klein, O., Berjot, S., & Pantazi, M. (2018) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2498 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Online communication as a window to conspiracist worldviews
Wood, M. J., & Douglas, K. M. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00836 · Cited by 110 · see citing works
The Conspiracy Mentality Scale
Stojanov, A., & Halberstadt, J. (2019) · Social Psychology · doi:10.1027/1864-9335/a000381 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Abalakina‐Paap, M., Stephan, W. G., Craig, T., & Gregory, W. L.
- Affiliations
- New Mexico State University (US)
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- Venue
- Political Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1999-09
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 637-647
- ISSN
- 0162-895X (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9221
- OpenAlex
- W2160755447
- Cited by
- 589
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 49 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 100 · 2021: 97 · 2020: 64 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 20 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 1.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Political Psychology (publishedVersion)
- 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 beliefs, individual differences, anomie, authoritarianism, powerlessness, self-esteem, external locus of control, hostility, trust, alienation
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 ›
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