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Political Extremism Predicts Belief in Conspiracy Theories
Abstract
Historical records suggest that the political extremes—at both the “left” and the “right”—substantially endorsed conspiracy beliefs about other-minded groups. The present contribution empirically tests whether extreme political ideologies, at either side of the political spectrum, are positively associated with an increased tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Four studies conducted in the United States and the Netherlands revealed a quadratic relationship between strength of political ideology and conspiracy beliefs about various political issues. Moreover, participants’ belief in simple political solutions to societal problems mediated conspiracy beliefs among both left- and right-wing extremists. Finally, the effects described here were not attributable to general attitude extremity. Our conclusion is that political extremism and conspiracy beliefs are strongly associated due to a highly structured thinking style that is aimed at making sense of societal events.
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“Various authors noted that the crippled epistemology that characterizes political extremism is also inherent to conspiracy beliefs (Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009; Swami et al., 2013).”
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Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response
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“The measures used in this study are based on previous research about common predictors of belief in conspiracy theories and misinformation in general [10,16,17,25,36,39,48], as well as specifically about COVID-19 [23,27,39,40,43], as reviewed in the Introduction section.”
MethodCoronavirus conspiracy beliefs, mistrust, and compliance with government guidelines in England
Freeman, D., Waite, F., Rosebrock, L., Petit, A., Causier, C., East, A., Jenner, L., Teale, A.-L., Carr, L., Mulhall, S., et al. (2022) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291720001890 · Cited by 714
“Political extremes (left or right) are most associated with the endorsement of conspiracy beliefs (Krouwel, Kutiyski, van Prooijen, Martinsson, & Markstedt, 2017; van Prooijen, Krouwel, & Pollet, 2015).”
Why Education Predicts Decreased Belief in Conspiracy Theories
van Prooijen, J. (2016) · Applied Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1002/acp.3301 · Cited by 577
“This is important given the many detrimental implications of believing in conspiracy theories, for public health (Oliver & Wood, 2014), political participation (Goertzel, 1994; Jolley & Douglas, 2014), and radicalization (Van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
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“Unlike previous studies (e.g., Douglas & Sutton, 2011; Goertzel, 1994; Lewandowski et al., 2013; Swami et al., 2011; Van Prooijen et al., 2015), the five conspiracy beliefs under investigation were only moderately correlated in this study.”
BackgroundResultInfluentialMotivated Rejection of Science
Lewandowsky, S., & Oberauer, K. (2016) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0963721416654436 · Cited by 418
Belief in conspiracy theories: Basic principles of an emerging research domain
van Prooijen, J., & Douglas, K. M. (2018) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2530 · Cited by 483
van Prooijen, J., Douglas, K. M., & De Inocencio, C. (2018) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2331 · Cited by 355
“Instead, these findings are consistent with previous findings that ambiguous stimuli increase conspiracy beliefs (Van Harreveld et al., 2014).”
MethodInfluentialConspiracy mentality and political orientation across 26 countries
Imhoff, R., Zimmer, F., Klein, O., António, J. H. C., Babińska, M., Bangerter, A., Bilewicz, M., Blanuša, N., Bovan, K., Bužarovska, R., et al. (2022) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-021-01258-7 · Cited by 274
Self-citationConspiracy Theories: Evolved Functions and Psychological Mechanisms
van Prooijen, J.-W., & van Vugt, M. (2018) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691618774270 · Cited by 414
‘They will not control us’: Ingroup positivity and belief in intergroup conspiracies
Cichocka, A., Marchlewska, M., Golec de Zavala, A., & Olechowski, M. (2016) · British Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjop.12158 · Cited by 295
Goreis, A., & Voracek, M. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00205 · Cited by 333
“…or affiliation—an item presented to participants in over 40 studies included in this review—revealed a quadratic association at either side of the political spectrum (Swami and Furnham, 2012; Pasek et al., 2015; van Prooijen et al., 2015; Lahrach and Furnham, 2017; Mancosu et al., 2017).”
Backgroundvan der Linden, S., Panagopoulos, C., Azevedo, F., & Jost, J. T. (2020) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12681 · Cited by 294
Georgiou, N., Delfabbro, P., & Balzan, R. P. (2020) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110201 · Cited by 291
Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them
(2018) · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190844073.001.0001 · Cited by 294
Imhoff, R., & Lamberty, P. (2018) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2494 · Cited by 267
Conspiracy theories and the conspiracy mindset: implications for political ideology
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The anti-vaccination infodemic on social media: A behavioral analysis
Germani, F., & Biller-Andorno, N. (2021) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0247642 · Cited by 316
RetractedStåhl, T., & van Prooijen, J.-W. (2018) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2017.10.026 · Cited by 245
“…beliefs are promoted by various epistemic and existential motives, such as the need for control (Van Prooijen&Acker, 2015; Whitson&Galinsky, 2008), uncertainty management (Van Prooijen& Jostmann, 2013), terror management (Newheiser et al., 2011), and ideology protection (Van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
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“Research shows that individuals who place themselves in ideological extremes are both more distrusting of the state and its powers as well as more prone to endorsing conspiracy theories (Van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
BackgroundAn Existential Threat Model of Conspiracy Theories
van Prooijen, J. (2019) · European Psychologist · doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000381 · Cited by 237
From populism to the “plandemic”: why populists believe in COVID-19 conspiracies
Eberl, J., Huber, R. A., & Greussing, E. (2021) · Journal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties · doi:10.1080/17457289.2021.1924730 · Cited by 255
Psychological Features of Extreme Political Ideologies
van Prooijen, J., & Krouwel, A. P. M. (2019) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0963721418817755 · Cited by 225
“In a large Dutch sample, participants on both extremes derogated outgroups more strongly than did politically moderate participants (van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
BackgroundSelf-citationSwami, V., Barron, D. S., Weis, L., Voracek, M., Stieger, S., & Furnham, A. F. (2017) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0172617 · Cited by 212
The nature and origins of political polarization over science
Rekker, R. (2021) · Public Understanding of Science · doi:10.1177/0963662521989193 · Cited by 210
“Social democracy has for example been influenced by Keynesian economics, while contemporary economic conservatism has been inspired by new classical economics (Adams, 1993; Van Horn and Mirowski, 2009).”
BackgroundInfluentialSuspicion of institutions: How distrust and conspiracy theories deteriorate social relationships
van Prooijen, J., Spadaro, G., & Wang, H. (2021) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.06.013 · Cited by 195
Understanding Fake News Consumption: A Review
Baptista, J. P., & Gradim, A. (2020) · Social Sciences · doi:10.3390/socsci9100185 · Cited by 229
“The literature has been able to find a positive correlation between populism and conspiracy, with anti-elitist, anti-corruption narratives and a basis on stereotypes and prejudices (A. Marwick and Lewis 2017; Van Prooijen et al. 2015).”
BackgroundMistrust and misinformation: A two-component, socio-epistemic model of belief in conspiracy theories
Pierre, J. M. (2020) · Journal of Social and Political Psychology · doi:10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1362 · Cited by 202
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Zmigrod, L., Rentfrow, P. J., & Robbins, T. W. (2019) · Journal of Experimental Psychology General · doi:10.1037/xge0000661 · Cited by 172
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“Since political beliefs are associated with people’s conspiracy beliefs (e.g., Nera et al., 2021; van Prooijen et al., 2015), we recruited a more ideological balanced sample than in Study 1.”
BackgroundBeyond “Monologicality”? Exploring Conspiracist Worldviews
Franks, B., Bangerter, A., Bauer, M. W., Hall, M., & Noort, M. C. (2017) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00861 · Cited by 166
“Moreover, CT belief correlates with political extremism (van Prooijen et al., 2015), and generalized CT beliefs have been argued to be precursors of terrorismendorsing beliefs (Bartlett and Miller, 2010).”
BackgroundClimate change and the far right
Forchtner, B. (2019) · Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Climate Change · doi:10.1002/wcc.604 · Cited by 203
“…Douglas, & Lewandowsky, 2017; for a striking case of a link between Holocaust denial and climate-change denial, see Forchtner, 2019, p. 172f). van Prooijen, Krouwel, and Pollet (2015), in a paper dealing with the United States and the Netherlands, argued that not only are conspiracy theories…”
BackgroundIndividual difference factors and beliefs in medical and political conspiracy theories
Galliford, N., & Furnham, A. F. (2017) · Scandinavian Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/sjop.12382 · Cited by 163
Psychological Correlates of Populist Attitudes
Erişen, C., Guidi, M., Martini, S., Toprakkiran, S., Isernia, P., & Littvay, L. (2021) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12768 · Cited by 148
Krouwel, A., Kutiyski, Y., van Prooijen, J.-W., Martinsson, J., & Markstedt, E. (2017) · Journal of Social and Political Psychology · doi:10.5964/jspp.v5i2.745 · Cited by 137
Self-citationExtreme Political Beliefs Predict Dogmatic Intolerance
van Prooijen, J., & Krouwel, A. P. M. (2016) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550616671403 · Cited by 148
“For instance, mutual suspicion is particularly prominent at both political extremes (Van Prooijen, Krouwel, & Pollet, 2015; see also Imhoff, 2015; Inglehart, 1987), and people at the extremes have increased confidence in their beliefs (Brandt, Evans, & Crawford, 2015).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSelf-citationOrganizational Conspiracy Beliefs: Implications for Leadership Styles and Employee Outcomes
van Prooijen, J., & de Vries, R. E. (2015) · Journal of Business and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s10869-015-9428-3 · Cited by 136
Believing in Conspiracy Theories: Evidence from an Exploratory Analysis of Italian Survey Data
Mancosu, M., Vassallo, S., & Vezzoni, C. (2017) · South European Society & Politics · doi:10.1080/13608746.2017.1359894 · Cited by 142
Schulze, H., Hohner, J., Greipl, S., Girgnhuber, M., Desta, I., & Rieger, D. (2022) · Convergence The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies · doi:10.1177/13548565221104977 · Cited by 126
“Most conspiracy narratives are extremist at their core, and all extremist ideologies have an underlying conspiracy narrative (Van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
Kim, S., & Kim, S. (2020) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph18010266 · Cited by 128
The illusion of explanatory depth and endorsement of conspiracy beliefs
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Are Republicans and Conservatives More Likely to Believe Conspiracy Theories?
Enders, A. M., Farhart, C. E., Miller, J. M., Uscinski, J. E., Saunders, K. L., & Drochon, H. H. (2022) · Political Behavior · doi:10.1007/s11109-022-09812-3 · Cited by 136
van Prooijen, J. (2016) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2157 · Cited by 71
Nera, K., Wagner-Egger, P., Bertin, P., Douglas, K. M., & Klein, O. (2021) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2769 · Cited by 86
“CTs blame a variety of groups, such as powerful economic groups (e.g., banks or pharmaceutical companies, van Prooijen et al., 2015), scientific communities (e.g., climate or vaccine scientists, Hornsey & Fielding, 2018), governments and intelligence services (Brotherton et al., 2013), ethnic or…”
BackgroundResultBiddlestone, M., Azevedo, F., & van der Linden, S. (2022) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101390 · Cited by 119
Dyrendal, A., Kennair, L. E., & Bendixen, M. (2021) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.110645 · Cited by 79
Online communication as a window to conspiracist worldviews
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“Van Prooijen et al. (2015) and Inglehart (1987) have shown that conspiracy belief tends to be higher among people who find themselves outside the political mainstream— those with either extreme left-wing or extreme right-wing politics are more likely than relative centrists to perceive a conspiracy…”
BackgroundWeber, T. J., Hydock, C., Ding, W., Gardner, M., Jacob, P., Mandel, N., Sprott, D. E., & Steenburg, E. V. (2021) · Journal of Public Policy & Marketing · doi:10.1177/0743915621991103 · Cited by 124
Maertens, R., Götz, F. M., Golino, H. F., Roozenbeek, J., Schneider, C. R., Kyrychenko, Y., Kerr, J. R., Stieger, S., McClanahan, W. P., III, Drabot, K., et al. (2023) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/s13428-023-02124-2 · Cited by 161
Conspiracy Thinking in Europe and America: A Comparative Study
Walter, A., & Drochon, H. (2020) · Political Studies · doi:10.1177/0032321720972616 · Cited by 81
Individual, intergroup and nation-level influences on belief in conspiracy theories
Hornsey, M., Bierwiaczonek, K., Sassenberg, K., & Douglas, K. M. (2022) · Nature Reviews Psychology · doi:10.1038/s44159-022-00133-0 · Cited by 86
Georgiou, N., Delfabbro, P., & Balzan, R. P. (2019) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2019.109521 · Cited by 98
Enders, A. M., Uscinski, J. E., Klofstad, C., Seelig, M. I., Wuchty, S., Murthi, M. N., Premaratne, K., & Funchion, J. (2021) · Journal of Social and Political Psychology · doi:10.5964/jspp.5649 · Cited by 105
Going to political extremes in response to boredom
van Tilburg, W. A. P., & Igou, E. R. (2016) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2205 · Cited by 96
The Political Domain Appears Simpler to the Politically Extreme Than to Political Moderates
Lammers, J., Koch, A. S., Conway, P. J., & Brandt, M. J. (2016) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550616678456 · Cited by 92
“Indeed, emerging findings show that extremists on both sides are more Political Preference and Representation of the Political Domain 5 dogmatic and less complex (Conway et al., 2016), and are more likely to believe in overly simplistic conspiracy theories (Van Prooijen, Krouwel, & Pollet, 2015).”
van Prooijen, J., Rodrigues, T. C., Bunzel, C., Georgescu, O., Komáromy, D., & Krouwel, A. P. M. (2022) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12802 · Cited by 105
Self-citationPeople believe misinformation is a threat because they assume others are gullible
Altay, S., & Acerbi, A. (2023) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/14614448231153379 · Cited by 119
“Previous work has shown that a belief in simple solutions for complex societal problems is strongly associated with believing in various conspiracy theories (Van Prooijen and Douglas, 2017; Van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
BackgroundThe psychological and political correlates of conspiracy theory beliefs
Uscinski, J. E., Enders, A., Diekman, A., Funchion, J., Klofstad, C. A., Kübler, S., Murthi, M., Premaratne, K., Seelig, M. I., Verdear, D., et al. (2022) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-022-25617-0 · Cited by 86
“The vast majority of research on the political correlates of conspiracy theory beliefs focuses on partisanship and ideology 16, 18–22 .”
Fasce, A., & Picó, A. (2019) · Science & Education · doi:10.1007/s11191-018-00022-0 · Cited by 86
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The role of system identity threat in conspiracy theory endorsement
Federico, C. M., Williams, A. L., & Vitriol, J. A. (2018) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2495 · Cited by 85
Medical conspiracy theories: cognitive science and implications for ethics
Andrade, G. E. (2020) · Medicine Health Care and Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s11019-020-09951-6 · Cited by 79
Belief in conspiracy theories and attitudes toward political violence
Vegetti, F., & Littvay, L. (2021) · Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica · doi:10.1017/ipo.2021.17 · Cited by 74
Using Social and Behavioural Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic ResponsePreprint
Bavel, J. J. V., D, K. B. A., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A. K., Cikara, M., Crockett, M. J., Crum, A. J., Douglas, K. M., Druckman, J. N., et al. (2022) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4178356 · Cited by 89
Cordonier, L., Cafiero, F., & Bronner, G. (2021) · Social Science Information · doi:10.1177/05390184211018961 · Cited by 55
“Finally, some studies have found that conspiratorial beliefs are negatively related to educational level (Douglas, Sutton, Callan, et al., 2016; Mancosu, Vassallo, and Vezzoni, 2017; Van Prooijen, 2017).”
InfluentialPantazi, M., Papaioannou, K., & van Prooijen, J. (2021) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12779 · Cited by 86
Jolley, D., Douglas, K. M., Skipper, Y., Thomas, E., & Cookson, D. (2021) · British Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjdp.12368 · Cited by 58
Fong, A. A., Roozenbeek, J., Goldwert, D., Rathje, S., & van der Linden, S. (2021) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/1368430220987596 · Cited by 82
“…correlates of conspiratorial 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.,…”
BackgroundStoica, C. A., & Umbreș, R. (2020) · European Societies · doi:10.1080/14616696.2020.1823450 · Cited by 82
Investigating Differences in Crowdsourced News Credibility Assessment
Bhuiyan, M. M., Zhang, A. X., Sehat, C. M., & Mitra, T. (2020) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3415164 · Cited by 75
“with traction across the political spectrum as are a number of conspiracy theories, with the former attitude now represented in general crowds in contrast to the continued fringe nature of the latter [34, 70]. The relationship between credibility and a strong partisan perspective may not exist in these cases, but we m…”
van der Wal, R. C., Sutton, R. M., Lange, J., & Braga, J. N. (2018) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2507 · Cited by 71
Cisłak, A., Marchlewska, M., Wójcik, A. D., Śliwiński, K., Molenda, Z., Szczepańska, D., & Cichocka, A. K. (2021) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/1368430220959451 · Cited by 72
“…work linking individual narcissism (Cichocka, Marchlewska, & Golec de Zavala, 2016) and political conservatism (van der Linden et al., 2020; cf. van Prooijen et al., 2015) to more generalized conspiracy beliefs, as well as with research showing that provaccination attitudes are less prevalent…”
BackgroundFrom bad to worse: Avoidance coping with stress increases conspiracy beliefs
Marchlewska, M., Green, R., Cichocka, A. K., Molenda, Z., & Douglas, K. M. (2021) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjso.12494 · Cited by 71
Antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs: a systematic reviewPreprint
van Mulukom, V., Pummerer, L., Alper, S., Bai, H., Čavojová, V., Farias, J. E. M., Kay, C. S., Lazarević, L. B., Lobato, E. J. C., Marinthe, G., et al. (2020) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/u8yah · Cited by 71
Topic Modeling Reveals Distinct Interests within an Online Conspiracy Forum
Klein, C., Clutton, P., & Polito, V. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00189 · Cited by 73
“…“who tends to believe [conspiracy theories], and why” (Leman, 2007, 36), or inquire into the “psychological origin” of conspiracy theories (Swami et al., 2014, 573), or discuss the “similar underlying psychological processes” that are common to conspiracy believers (Van Prooijen et al., 2015, 2).”
Backgroundvan Kessel, S., Sajuria, J., & Hauwaert, S. M. V. (2020) · West European Politics · doi:10.1080/01402382.2019.1700448 · Cited by 74
“…individuals at both the radical ‘left’ and ‘right’ ends of the political spectrum are susceptible to conspiratorial thinking (Oliver and Rahn 2016; van Prooijen et al. 2015), and prone to simplifying the political domain and (unjustified) judgemental certainty (Lammers et al. 2017; van Prooijen…”
BackgroundPsychometric assessment of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale
Drinkwater, K., Dagnall, N., Denovan, A., & Neave, N. (2020) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0230365 · Cited by 48
“Examples include the Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (BCTI; [22]), the Belief in Specific Conspiracies Scale (BSCS; [27]), and the Composite Conspiracy Beliefs Scales (CCBS; [28]) (see [26] for a detailed list of measures).”
BackgroundJolley, D., Douglas, K. M., Marchlewska, M., Cichocka, A. K., & Sutton, R. M. (2021) · Journal of Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/jasp.12829 · Cited by 68
“However, van Prooijen et al. (2015) also found that conspiracy beliefs were stronger on the far right, which is a finding that has been supported by other scholars (e.g., Galliford & Furnham, 2017; van der Linden, et al., 2020).”
Ideological Responses to the EU Refugee Crisis
van Prooijen, J., Krouwel, A. P. M., & Emmer, J. (2017) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550617731501 · Cited by 68
“…connected to decreased integrative complexity (Conway et al., 2016; Tetlock et al., 1994), conspiracy theories (Imhoff, 2015; Inglehart, 1987; van Prooijen et al. 2015), and simpler perceptual categories (Lammers et al., in press), these findings are the first to illuminate how political…”
BackgroundSelf-citationPopulist attitudes and conspiratorial thinking
Balta, E., Kaltwasser, C. R., & Yağcı, A. H. (2021) · Party Politics · doi:10.1177/13540688211003304 · Cited by 67
“…which has proliferated recently, shows that a belief in conspiracy theories is associated with alienation from politics (Goertzel, 1994), political extremism (Van Prooijen et al., 2015), lacking trust in institutions (Miller et al., 2016) and low levels of education (Van Prooijen, 2017).”
BackgroundAre misinformation, antiscientific claims, and conspiracy theories for political extremists?
Enders, A. M., & Uscinski, J. E. (2021) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/1368430220960805 · Cited by 69
“The sign of the quadratic term is, however, opposite of what previous research finds (van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialHow (Ir)rational is it to believe in contradictory conspiracy theories?
Lukić, P., Žeželj, I., & Stanković, B. (2019) · Europe’s Journal of Psychology · doi:10.5964/ejop.v15i1.1690 · Cited by 59
Who Supports QAnon? A Case Study in Political Extremism
Enders, A. M., Uscinski, J. E., Klofstad, C., Wuchty, S., Seelig, M. I., Funchion, J., Murthi, M. N., Premaratne, K., & Stoler, J. B. (2021) · The Journal of Politics · doi:10.1086/717850 · Cited by 65
“Not only is this predisposition consistently related to specific conspiracy theory beliefs (Miller 2020), but others have found that extreme political self-identifiers exhibit higher levels of conspiracy belief (van Prooijen et al. 2015).”
BackgroundWho Are Conspiracy Theorists? A Comprehensive Approach to Explaining Conspiracy Beliefs
Enders, A. M., & Smallpage, S. M. (2019) · Social Science Quarterly · doi:10.1111/ssqu.12711 · Cited by 63
The Politics of Vaccine Hesitancy: An Ideological Dual-Process Approach
Bilewicz, M., & Soral, W. (2021) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/19485506211055295 · Cited by 64
“Although a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories is visible on both extremes of the political spectrum, several specific conspiracy theories are endorsed more by the rightwing supporters (van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
BackgroundEuroscepticism, Democracy and the Media
Leruth, B., Kutiyski, Y., Krouwel, A. P. M., Startin, N., Caiani, M., & Guerra, S. (2017) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/978-1-137-59643-7 · Cited by 62
Self-citationOf precarity and conspiracy: Introducing a socio‐functional model of conspiracy beliefs
Adam‐Troian, J., Chayinska, M., Paladino, M. P., Uluğ, Ö. M., Vaes, J., & Wagner‐Egger, P. (2022) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjso.12597 · Cited by 80
“…to greater endorsement of conspiracy beliefs (Garrett & Weeks, 2017; Goertzel, 1994; Green & Douglas, 2018; Mancosu et al., 2017; Oliver & Wood, 2014; Radnitz & Underwood, 2015; Stempel et al., 2007; Swami et al., 2016; Uscinski & Parent, 2014; van Prooijen, 2017; van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
The rise and fall of rationality in language
Scheffer, M., van de Leemput, I. A., Weinans, E., & Bollen, J. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2107848118 · Cited by 60
“Conspiracy theories originate particularly in times of uncertainty and crisis (35, 37) and generally depict established institutions as hiding the truth and sustaining an unfair situation (38).”
BackgroundTheir own worst enemy? Collective narcissists are willing to conspire against their in‐group
Biddlestone, M., Cichocka, A. K., Główczewski, M., & Cisłak, A. (2022) · British Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjop.12569 · Cited by 59
Bowes, S. M., & Tasimi, A. (2022) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104220 · Cited by 62
How social identity shapes conspiratorial belief
Robertson, C. E., Pretus, C., Rathje, S., Harris, E. A., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2022) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101423 · Cited by 57
Who Believes in Conspiracy Theories in Great Britain and Europe?
Drochon, H. H. (2018) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190844073.003.0022 · Cited by 62
Farias, J. E. M., & Pilati, R. (2021) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-021-01416-0 · Cited by 56
Conspiracy theories and social movements studies: A research agenda
Bertuzzi, N. (2021) · Sociology Compass · doi:10.1111/soc4.12945 · Cited by 65
Šrol, J. (2021) · Thinking & Reasoning · doi:10.1080/13546783.2021.1938220 · Cited by 71
“…ESBs and important negative real-life outcomes, such as risky health choices (Browne et al., 2015; Grebe & Nattrass, 2012), political extremism (van Prooijen et al., 2015), justification and support for violence (Jolley & Paterson, 2020), or the tendency to perceive nonsensical bullshit statements…”
BackgroundVranić, A., Hromatko, I., & Tonković, M. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.931865 · Cited by 67
Belief traps: Tackling the inertia of harmful beliefs
Scheffer, M., Borsboom, D., Nieuwenhuis, S., & Westley, F. R. (2022) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2203149119 · Cited by 58
“Conspiracy theories generally depict established institutions or groups as hiding the truth and sustaining an unfair situation (83).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- van Prooijen, J.-W., Krouwel, A. P. M., & Pollet, T. V.
- Affiliations
- VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- Venue
- Social Psychological and Personality Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-01-12
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 570-578
- ISSN
- 1948-5506 (ISSN-L)
- 1948-5514
- OpenAlex
- W2327590731
- Cited by
- 626
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 38 · 2025: 62 · 2024: 69 · 2023: 71 · 2022: 115 · 2021: 111 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 54 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 8
- FWCI
- 96.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Psychological and Personality Science (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
- Northumbria Research Link (Northumbria University) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- political extremism, conspiracy beliefs, political ideology, left-wing extremism, right-wing extremism, attitude extremity
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