The DOI matches its Crossref record; 19 of the 19 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
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.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
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?
In the citing paper
“and feel powerless (Abalakina-Paap, Stephan, Craig, & Gregory, 1999).”
From The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories (2017) · cites this paper as Abalakina-Paap, Stephan, Craig, & Gregory, 1999
In the citing paper
“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
In the citing paper
“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]
In the citing paper
“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]
Citations
Cites
Society and the Adolescent Self-Image
Rosenberg, M. (1965) · doi:10.1515/9781400876136 · Cited by 30,126
Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement.
Rotter, J. B. (1966) · Psychological Monographs: General and Applied · doi:10.1037/h0092976 · Cited by 21,937
Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Bruνswik, E., Levinson, D. M., & Sandford, R. N. (2001) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781446220986.n8 · Cited by 6,460
Pearlin, L. I., Menaghan, E. G., Lieberman, M. A., & Mullan, J. T. (1981) · Journal of Health and Social Behavior · doi:10.2307/2136676 · Cited by 6,289 · cited 1×
“This scale was the short version created by Sadowski (1993). It contains 15 items ( α = .”
Buss, A. H., & Perry, M. (1992) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.63.3.452 · Cited by 4,693
Intolerance of ambiguity as a personality variable1
Budner, N. Y. S. (1962) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1962.tb02303.x · Cited by 2,084
The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays
Barker, C. A., & Hofstadter, R. (1966) · The American Historical Review · doi:10.2307/1848349 · Cited by 1,448
Goertzel, T. (1994) · Political Psychology · doi:10.2307/3791630 · Cited by 1,094 · cited 14×
“Goertzel (1994), in one of the few studies to examine the correlates of beliefs in conspiracies, found that such beliefs were related to low levels of trust and high levels of anomie.”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSocial Integration and Certain Corollaries: An Exploratory Study
Srole, L. (1956) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2088422 · Cited by 1,028
The sinister attribution error: Paranoid cognition and collective distrust in organizations
Kramer, R. M. (1994) · Motivation and Emotion · doi:10.1007/bf02249399 · Cited by 359
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Understanding Conspiracy Theories
Douglas, K. M., Uscinski, J. E., Sutton, R. M., Cichocka, A., Nefes, T., Ang, C. S., & Deravi, F. (2019) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12568 · Cited by 1,511
The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., & Cichocka, A. (2017) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0963721417718261 · Cited by 1,316
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…”
Bruder, M., Haffke, P., Neave, N., Nouripanah, N., & Imhoff, R. (2013) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00225 · Cited by 1,049
“This may be because women are structurally disadvantaged in many societies and powerless individuals and groups are more susceptible to conspiracy beliefs (Abalakina-Paap et al., 1999).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialMeasuring Belief in Conspiracy Theories: The Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale
Brotherton, R., French, C. C., & Pickering, A. D. (2013) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00279 · Cited by 950
Metadata
- 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 ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
