Belief in conspiracy theories and intentions to engage in everyday crime

In the paper

“Criminal behaviours were also negatively associated with Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness-Anger, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience and Moral Identity (symbolisation), and positively associated with Extraversion.”

In the paper

“Honesty-Humility was negatively correlated conspiracy beliefs, and Moral Identity (internalisation) was positively correlated with conspiracy beliefs.”

In the paper

“Using oblique rotation (promax), we conducted an exploratory factor analysis of the individual items of both scales.Statistical assumptions were met, and the analysis revealed one factor (eigenvalue 4.23), explaining 52.81 per cent of the variance.We therefore combined the items into one measure of everyday crime (α = .84).”

In the paper

“It is worth noting, however, that Honesty-Humility was shown to explain the largest variance in predicting everyday crime, and in Study 2, the effect sizes, whilst robust, were of moderate size.”

In the paper

“Everyday crimes are common offences that most people are likely to commit at some point in their lives (Karstedt & Farrall, 2006).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Karstedt & Farrall, 2006

In the paper

“Conspiracy theories appear to increase feelings of powerlessness and disillusionment (Jolley & Douglas, 2014b) rather than making people feel better.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Jolley & Douglas, 2014b

In the paper

“They can fuel intergroup conflict and prejudice (e.g., Bilewicz, Winiewski, Kofta, & Wójcik, 2013;Kofta & Sedek, 2005;Golec de Zavala & Cichocka, 2012), which in turn can even generalize to other out-groups who are not involved in the alleged conspiracies (Jolley, Meleady, & Douglas, under review).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Bilewicz et al., 2013
• Not checked yetcites Kofta & Sedek, 2005
• Not checked yetcites Golec de Zavala & Cichocka, 2012

In the paper

“Moreover, belief in organisational conspiracy theories-that is, believing that powerful groups act secretly to achieve objectives at the cost of employees-is associated with decreased commitment to the organisation, and with increased job dissatisfaction and willingness to leave the organisation (Douglas & Leite, 2017).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Douglas & Leite, 2017

In the paper

“For example, conspiracy theories appear to discourage people from voting, from reducing their carbon footprint, and from vaccinating their children (Jolley & Douglas, 2014a, 2014b).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Jolley & Douglas, 2014a, 2014b

In the paper

“Belief in conspiracy theories is associated with negative outcomes such as political disengagement, prejudice, and environmental inaction.”

• Also stated in: § Belief in conspiracy theories and intentions to engage in everyday crime · plain

  “including political disengagement, prejudice, and environmental inaction (see Douglas et al., 2017 for a review).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Douglas et al., 2017

In the paper

“In a similar vein, van Gelder and de Vries (2016) found that Honesty-Humility and Conscientiousness predicted White Collar Crime (WCC) behaviours, which are crimes committed by employees against their employing organisation.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites van Gelder and de Vries (2016)

In the paper

“Specifically, in the HEXACO model of personality (Lee & Ashton, 2004), Honesty-Humility (which embodies people's moral conscience) is an important predictor of unethical business decisions (Lee & Ashton, 2008).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Lee & Ashton, 2008

In the paper

“Specifically, conspiracy theories are associated with increased levels of mistrust (Einstein & Glick, 2015;Jolley & Douglas, 2014b), cynicism (Swami, Chamorro-Premuzic, & Furnham, 2010) and anomie-or a general feeling of unrest and dissatisfaction (Abalakina-Paap, Stephan, Craig, & Gregory, 1999).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Einstein & Glick, 2015
• Not checked yetcites Jolley & Douglas, 2014b
• Not checked yetcites Swami, Chamorro-Premuzic, & Furnham, 2010

In the paper

“For example, moral identity predicts a lower likelihood of lying in a salary negotiation and a greater likelihood of acting in a prosocial way (Aquino, Freeman, Reed, Lim, & Felps, 2009;Winterich, Aquino, Mittal, & Swartz, 2013).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Aquino, Freeman, Reed, Lim, & Felps, 2009
• Not checked yetcites Winterich, Aquino, Mittal, & Swartz, 2013

In the paper

“In a recent review, Douglas et al. (2017) suggested that social factors, such as anomie and feelings of alienation, are likely to be exacerbated by conspiracy theories.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Douglas et al. (2017)

In the paper

“It is also a robust individual-level correlate of criminal behaviour (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990;Pratt & Cullen, 2000), alongside Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, which consistently predict criminal and anti-social behaviour (Miller & Lynam, 2001).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Gottfredson & Hirschi, 1990
• Not checked yetcites Pratt & Cullen, 2000
• Not checked yetcites Miller & Lynam, 2001

In the paper

“Specifically, the imbalance between cultural goals (i.e., what is expected at the individual level) and the means available to individuals to achieve what is expected, are is likely to result in anomie, which in turn increases deviant behaviour and crime.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Merton (1938Merton ( , 1957) )

In the paper

“Given that social reality is often uncertain, people will often look to others to infer what the expected attitudes, beliefs and behaviours are that will help them navigate the social world (Festinger, 1950;Reynolds, Subašić, & Tindall, 2014).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Festinger, 1950
• Not checked yetcites Reynolds, Subašić, & Tindall, 2014

In the paper

“Specifically, we know that conspiracy theories are associated with anomie (Abalakina-Paap et al., 1999) and that anomie, in turn, is associated with unethical behaviours (Ramaseshan & Ewing, 2001).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Abalakina-Paap et al., 1999
• Not checked yetcites Ramaseshan & Ewing, 2001

In the paper

“Following recommendations regarding sample size calculations to receive stable correlations (n = 250; Schönbrodt & Perugini, 2013), 253 participants (93 male, 157 female and three transgender; Mage = 36.97,SD = 11.71) were recruited via the online recruitment platform, Prolific Academic.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Schönbrodt & Perugini, 2013

In the paper

“These scales were presented in random order.”

In the paper

“Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions (conspiracy theory article [n = 60] vs. control [n = 60]).”

In the paper

“Participants were then asked to read twelve statements about conspiracy theories, which were used as a manipulation check (Jolley & Douglas, 2014b, α = .91).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Jolley & Douglas, 2014b

In the paper

“Presentation of the scales was counterbalanced.”

In the paper

“A small-medium effect size determined from previous research (e.g., Jolley & Douglas, 2014a, 2014b) required a sample size of approximately 120 for 80% power of detecting the effect.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Jolley & Douglas, 2014a, 2014b

In the paper

“Presentation of the two scales was counterbalanced.”

In the paper

“The results demonstrated that being exposed to a pro-conspiracy account (vs.control) directly increase feelings of anomie, leading to an increased intention to engage in everyday crime in the future.”

In the paper

“A key contextual factor may be feeling empowered by the action or inaction.”

In the paper

“This is consistent with recent theorising suggesting that social factors, such as alienation and anomie, may not only be psychological antecedents of belief in conspiracy theories, but they might also be exacerbated by exposure to conspiracy theories (Douglas et al., 2017).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Douglas et al., 2017

In the paper

“Importantly, this finding also supports the idea that beliefs in conspiracy theories are dynamic and vary according to the social context, including being influenced by people's epistemic, existential, and social motives (Douglas et al., 2017).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Douglas et al., 2017

In the paper

“Disillusionment may promote more passive responses to conspiracy theories (e.g., political inaction) rather than active responses (e.g., engaging in crime).”

In the paper

“Alongside predictors such as Honesty-Humility, which is a consistent predictor of everyday crime (van Gelder & de Vries, 2016), belief in conspiracy theories was also a significant positive predictor of such behaviour.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites van Gelder & de Vries, 2016

In the paper

“For example, social desirability may have played a role in the participants' answers in our studies.”

In the paper

“Previous research has demonstrated that conspiracy theories can lead to disengagement from politics, climate science, vaccination and the workplace (Douglas & Leite, 2017;Jolley & Douglas, 2014a, 2014b).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Douglas & Leite, 2017
• Not checked yetcites Jolley & Douglas, 2014a, 2014b

In the paper

“It demonstrates that conspiracy theories do not always lead to apathy and inaction.Instead, conspiracy theories might lead people to actively engage in antisocial behaviour.”

In the paper

“This was surprising since previous research has found that disillusionment was influenced by conspiracy theories, and that disillusionment mediated the relationship between exposure to conspiracy theories and both political and environmental intentions (Jolley & Douglas, 2014b).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Jolley & Douglas, 2014b

In the paper

“This finding resonates with the work of Imhoff and Bruder (2014) who found that people who believed in conspiracy theories were more likely to take political action such as organizing a protest.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Imhoff and Bruder (2014)

In the paper

“Furthermore, whilst in the current research we were able to provide casual evidence that conspiracy theories predict everyday crime via feelings of anomie, we were unable to examine the possibility that conspiracy theories appeal to those who are already predisposed to immoral behaviour.”

In the paper

“For example, research has shown that moral disengagement may account for decisions to engage in WCC behaviours (Egan, Hughes, & Palmer, 2015).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites Egan, Hughes, & Palmer, 2015

In the paper

“It also allowed us to measure a range of everyday crime behavioural intentions instead of focusing on a single behavioural indicator.”

In the paper

“Although participants on Prolific Academic are predominantly in fulltime employment (see Prolific Academic, 2018), differences in financial security could plausibly determine attitudes and behaviours associated with crime.”

In the paper

“However, it is plausible that a different causal path may also exist.That is, greater anomie might lead to higher conspiracy belief, which could predict intentions to engage in everyday crimes.”

In the paper

“Another limitation of the current research is that we cannot rule out the possibility that participants' criminal behaviours were the result of their financial situation rather than their conspiracy beliefs.”

In the paper

“However, the current investigation did allow us to study the sensitive topic of everyday crime whilst ensuring anonymity to participants who took part.”