The DOI matches its Crossref record; 90 of the 90 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories Following Ostracism
Abstract
Four studies (total valid N = 643) examined whether ostracism increases people’s political conspiracy beliefs through heightened vulnerability and whether self-affirmation intervention counteracts the effect of ostracism on conspiracy beliefs. Compared with their nonostracized counterparts, ostracized participants were more likely to endorse conspiracy beliefs related to different political issues (Studies 1–3). Moreover, heightened vulnerability mediated the link between ostracism and conspiracy beliefs (Studies 1–3). Offering ostracized participants an opportunity to reaffirm values important to them could reduce their political conspiracy beliefs (Study 4). Taken together, our findings highlight the crucial role of vulnerability in understanding when and why ostracism increases conspiracy beliefs and how to ameliorate this relationship. Our findings also provide novel insights into how daily interpersonal interactions influence people’s political beliefs and involvement.
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“(3) feel safe and in control [36][37][38].”
From The dark side of social movements: social identity, non-conformity, and the lure of conspiracy theories (2020) · cites this paper as [37]
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Research works printed but not linked: 4
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Pica, G., Leander, N. P., Nariman, H. S., Hadarics, M., Snook, D. W., Bélanger, J. J., Rullo, M., Mehrez, A., Pierro, A., Sutton, R. M., et al. (2025) · Journal of Social and Personal Relationships · doi:10.1177/02654075251327310
“According to Poon et al. (2020), vulnerable individuals are more motivated to make sense of their surrounding environment by seeking “ to detect and avoid potential threats and potentially project such threats to the whole society ” (p. 2 ).”
InfluentialBiddlestone, M., Azevedo, F., Chalmers, J., Gronfeldt, B., & Zibell, H. (2025) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-7010338/v1
Aelst, P. V., Terren, L., Esser, F., Damme, T. V., & Humprecht, E. (2025) · Information Communication & Society · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2025.2587131 · Cited by 3
“Increased anxiety may lead people to project feelings of threat onto institutions or social out-groups (Poon et al., 2020).”
Goreis, A., Pfeffer, B., Zesch, H. E., Klinger, D., Reiner, T., Bock, M. M., Ohmann, S., Sackl‐Pammer, P., Werneck‐Rohrer, S., Eder, H., et al. (2024) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.26563893
Chan, R. S. W., Liang, J., & Poon, K. (2025) · European Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1080/17405629.2025.2603221
“Research has shown that ostracized people are more likely to make hostile attributions to ambiguous actions (DeWall et al., 2009), detect deceptive smiles in others (Bernstein et al., 2008), and have more superstitious and conspiratorial thoughts (Poon et al., 2020; Poon, Wong, et al., 2023).”
Self-citationYou Can (Not) Play with Us: Conspiracy Theories, Media, and Ostracism
Baghumyan, A., Rohrbach, T., & Adam, S. (2026) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/13684302261460770
Sharma, S., & Shahnawaz, M. G. (2026) · Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal · doi:10.1007/s10560-026-01136-z
“Ostracism threatens adolescents’ sense of belonging, social worth, and emotional security, potentially increasing vulnerability to maladaptive coping responses (Poon et al., 2020).”
InfluentialPiliousis, A., & Gardikiotis, A. (2026) · Journal of Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/jasp.70078
Democratic resilience to authoritarian disinformation: Initiating a needs-based approach
Wagnsson, C., Hoyle, A., & Petterson, A. (2026) · Contemporary Security Policy · doi:10.1080/13523260.2026.2707161 · Cited by 1
“Beyond the radicalization literature, a growing number of studies have identified the need for belonging as a factor in belief in conspi-racy theories (Hettich et al., 2022; Poon et al., 2020).”
Newton, J. F., von Hecker, U., Haddock, G., & Proulx, T. (2026) · Social Cognition · doi:10.1521/soco.2026.44.4.457
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
“Third, people may be encouraged to consider contextual factors, as well as affective states, that promote erroneous beliefs (e.g. feelings of ostracism; see Bonetto et al., 2018; Lazić et al., 2021; Poon et al., 2020).”
Williams, M., Kerr, J. R., Marques, M. D., Abu-Obeid, H., & Hill, S. R. (2026) · Frontiers in Social Psychology · doi:10.3389/frsps.2026.1892137
Hoppe, J., Sambol, S., & Ball, M. (2026) · Scandinavian Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/sjop.70149
Conspiracy Theories and Belief in Conspiracy Theories
Harris, K. R. (2026) · Philosophy Compass · doi:10.1111/phc3.70137
“…of outlandish conspiracy theories to be correlated with, for some examples, illusory pattern perception (van Prooijen et al. 2018), paranoia (Imhoff and Lamberty 2018), dark tetrad traits (Doš-enović and Dinić 2024), feelings of ostracism (Poon et al. 2020), and so on (Stasielowicz 2022).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Poon, K.-T., Chen, Z., & Wong, W.-Y.
- Affiliations
- Education University of Hong Kong (HK)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Corresponding author
- Poon, Kai-Tak
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2020-01-12
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1234-1246
- ISSN
- 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7433
- OpenAlex
- W3000031813
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 90
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 6
- FWCI
- 16.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- The Hong Kong Research Grants Council’s Early Career Scheme (28603715)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- ostracism, conspiracy beliefs, vulnerability, self-affirmation, political participation, interpersonal rejection, political beliefs
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Politics, Psychological Theory, Social Isolation, Trust
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