The hidden impact of conspiracy theories: Perceived and actual influence of theories surrounding the death of Princess Diana

“Douglas and Sutton (2008) corroborated these findings with respect to conspiracy theories about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. They further investigated whether people were aware that their attitudes had changed as a result of exposure to conspiracy theories, finding that they were not. Research also suggests…”

“Douglas and Sutton (2008) showed that people were effectively persuaded by proconspiracy material but were not aware that they had been persuaded and falsely recalled that their preexposure beliefs were identical to their new beliefs.”

“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…”

“…required to illuminate the psychology of conspiracist ideation, and the number of recent publications on the topic (e.g., Leman and Cinnirella, 2007; Douglas and Sutton, 2008, 2011; Bogart et al., 2010; Swami et al., 2010, 2011, 2013; Darwin et al., 2011; Newheiser et al., 2011; Swami, 2012; Wood…”

“Conspiracy theories also appear to influence people without their awareness (Douglas and Sutton, 2008).”

“Crucially, there were 5 items regarding the death of Princess Diana (Douglas & Sutton, 2008, 2011; a ¼ .83): 1.”

“Douglas and Sutton (2008) showed that after exposure to conspiracy theories about the death of Princess Diana, participants were demonstrably affected by those theories even when they tried to dismiss their influence.”

“Beginning in the early 1990s, psychologists began to examine the socio-cognitive bases of conspiracy theories (e.g., Butler, Koopman, & Zimbardo, 1995; Douglas & Sutton, 2008).”

“It may also be fruitful to examine the sociocognitive changes that occur when exposed to conspiracist beliefs (e.g. Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Leman & Cinnirella, 2007).”

“…of malevolent groups, who cover up information to suit their own interests (Brotherton, 2015; Cichocka, Marchlewska, & Golec de Zavala, 2016; Douglas & Sutton, 2008, 2011, 2015; Douglas, Sutton, Callan, Dawtry, & Harvey, 2016; Goertzel, 1994; McCauley & Jacques, 1979; Sutton & Douglas,…”

“…job’ (Swami, Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2010; Wood & Douglas, 2013), that Princess Diana was murdered by elements within the British establishment (Douglas & Sutton, 2008, 2011), that climate change is a hoax (Jolley & Douglas, 2014a; Lewandowsky, Oberauer & Gignac, 2013) and that Lee Harvey…”

“Notable examples of such conspiracy theories include beliefs about involvement of the US government in the 9/11 attack or the English Royal Family in the death of Princes Diana (Wood, Douglas, & Sutton, 2012).”

“Kennedy (McHoskey 1995), through the death of Diana, Princess of Wales (Douglas and Sutton 2008) to the collapse of the World Trade Center (Fenster 2008).”

“Notable examples include conspiracy theories about the national representatives’ involvement in the deaths of Princes Diana or JFK (e.g., Douglas & Sutton, 2008).”

“…to a growing body of research that is aimed at understanding under what conditions people endorse or question conspiracy theories (Crocker, Luhtanen, Broadnax, & Blaine, 1999; Douglas & Sutton, 2008, 2011; Kramer & Messick, 1998; McCauley & Jacques, 1979; Swami, Chamorro-Premuzic, & Furnham, 2010).”

“After exposure to conspiracy theories about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, British participants were more inclined to endorse those theories, but thought that their beliefs had not changed (Douglas & Sutton, 2008).”

“, that Princess Diana was killed by the British Secret Service) that they explicitly dismiss (Douglas and Sutton, 2008).”

“Not only are beliefs in conspiracy theories widespread and on the increase (e.g., Goertzel, 1994; Swami et al., 2011), they are also prone to a third person effect whereby we feel others believe in conspiracy theories more than we do (Douglas and Sutton, 2008).”

“These ideas refer directly to influential definitions of conspiracy belief (Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Keeley, 1999).”

“Further, research has shown that people can be influenced by exposure to conspiracy theories without being aware that they have been persuaded (Douglas and Sutton, 2008).”

“At the present time, questionnaire-based investigations of individual differences make up the bulk of the existing research, although experimental approaches are emerging (e.g., Douglas and Sutton, 2008; Jolley and Douglas, 2013).”

“Indeed, reference to secret plots is an inalienable dimension of what a conspiracy theory is really like (Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Keeley, 1999; Swami & Furnham, 2014).”

“In previous work by Douglas and Sutton (2008), this manipulation has been shown to successfully increase belief in conspiracy theories.”

“…found to be somewhat responsive to circumstances: van Prooijen and Jostmann (2013) found that inducing uncertainty increased conspiracy belief, whilst exposure to specific CTs (e.g., concerning Princess Diana: Douglas and Sutton, 2008; and John F Kennedy: Butler et al., 1995) also increased it.”

“This manipulation was adapted from a study by Douglas and Sutton (2008), which was successful in increasing conspiracy beliefs.”

“We argue that such convictions function similarly to conspiracy beliefs, which can be defined as beliefs in secret plots by powerful and malevolent groups (e.g., Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Goertzel, 1994).”

“Conspiracy theories develop around significant events, such as the death of Princess Diana, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, or the Zika virus (Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Klofstad et al., 2019; Swami et al., 2010; Wood, 2018).”

“Adapted from previous studies (e.g. Cassino, 2016; Douglas et al., 2019; Douglas and Sutton, 2008), we presented participants with a list of five statements regarding general conspiracy beliefs.”

“For example, Douglas and Sutton (2008) had participants read material containing conspiracy theories about Princess Diana’s death before rating their own and others’ agreement with the statements, as well as their perceived retrospective attitudes.”

“Conspiracy theories attribute significant social and political events to the actions of powerful and malicious groups (Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Goertzel, 1994; Uscinski & Parent, 2014).”

“These findings support the idea of a broad conspiracist worldview based on disbelief in mainstream or received narratives, and highlight the analysis of online communication as a potentially useful tool for gaining insight into the worldview and assumptions of the persuader.”

“Early conspiracy theories were often related to the political landscape (Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Issit, 2012), but healthrelated conspiracy theories have become increasingly common since the 1980s (Issit, 2012; Kalichma, 2009).”

“Examples abound, such as fake news and news manipulation and the consequent crisis of social “objectivity” [96], online bullying and shaming of people with different opinions and views [97], and the diffusion of pseudoscience [98] and conspiracy [99] theories.”

“It is important to challenge such narratives, as not only are they detrimental to our health and well-being, current research suggests that exposure to conspiratorial beliefs can affect our perception of events to a greater degree than we are aware [57].”

“…hypotheses after major events are now familiar and are known as conspiracy theories, defined as unverified claims of conspiracy (i.e., a secret agreement between powerful individuals to enforce and hide a malevolent agenda) with sensationalistic implications (e.g., Douglas & Sutton, 2008).”

“Douglas and Sutton (2008) found similar results with respect to conspiracy theories about the death of Princess Diana.”

“The list of popular conspiracy theories is long, impressive, and to some degree depressing, including stories surrounding the origins of AIDS (Parsons, Simmons, Shinhoster, & Kilburn, 1999; Simmons & Parsons, 2005), the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy (McCauley & Jacques, 1979; McHoskey, 1995), and the…”

“Beginning in the 1990s, psychologists began to investigate the socio-cognitive bases of conspiracist ideation (e.g., Butler, Koopman, & Zimbardo, 1995; Douglas & Sutton, 2008).”

“…circumstances of the death of prominent individuals and celebrities, such as the conspiracy that Princess Diana was murdered, that John F. Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA, or that rapper Tupac Shakur faked his own death (Douglas & Sutton, 2008; McCauley & Jacques, 1979; Quinn, 2002).”

“Research has shown that conspiracy theories change people’s attitudes on important issues (Douglas & Sutton, 2008; see also Douglas & Sutton, 2018; Jolley, Mari, et al., 2020 for reviews).”

“For example, some formulations of the Princess Diana assassination conspiracy allege that the British Secret Service was involved in her death, but are unclear on whether any benefi ts accrued to the alleged conspirators after the event ( Douglas & Sutton, 2008 ).”

“…such as the destruction of interpersonal relationships (Douglas & Leite, 2017), reduction of environmental behaviours (Jolley & Douglas, 2014), and weakening in political participation (Douglas & Sutton, 2008), are far-reaching (Jolley, 2013; Jolley & Douglas, 2017; van Prooijen & Douglas, 2018).”

“Douglas and Sutton (2008) demonstrated that exposure to conspiracy theories increases belief in them, which has been the foundation of subsequent research (e.g., Jolley & Douglas, 2014a, 2014b; Swami et al., 2011).”

“Douglas and Sutton (2008) found that exposing participants to conspiratorial information about the death of Princess Diana changed perceptions of the causes of her fatal car”

“Despite the intuitive widespread impression that the term conspiracy theory has a bad connotation leading to suppression of conspiracy explanations (Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Klein et al., 2015) and consideration of conspiracy beliefs as sources of social stigma (Lantian et al., 2018), a study by…”

“For example, Jolley (2013) and Douglas and Sutton (2008) demonstrate that exposure to conspiracy theories can influence people’s perceptions in ways that align with said conspiracy and of which they are CONTACT Dilshani Sarathchandra dilshanis@uidaho.edu Supplemental data for this article can be…”

“The accessibility of motive may help explain why conspiracy beliefs are easy to acquire (Douglas & Sutton, 2008) and difficult to extinguish (McHoskey, 1995).”

“This may explain its positive relationships with conspiracy beliefs (i.e., beliefs in secret plots by powerful and malevolent groups; Douglas & Sutton, 2008) and out-group hostility (Marchlewska, Cichocka, et al., 2019; Marchlewska, Górska, et al., 2022).”

“In a similar vein, Douglas and Sutton (2008) measured conspiracy beliefs about Princess Diana’s assassination in subjects who were asked to read popular CTs on the subject, finding a greater endorsement when compared to the control group who did not receive any information.”

“…are told that the U.S. government was complicit in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center (Swami et al., 2010), Princess Diana was mur-dered (Douglas & Sutton, 2008), COVID-19 was a plot to enable Bill Gates to plant microchips in people’s bodies, and the 2020 presidential election was…”

“Conspiracy theories tend to be associated with major events, epidemics, collective threats, and times of political instability (McHoskey, 1995; Grzesiak-Feldman, 2007; Douglas and Sutton, 2008; Sharp, 2008; Carey et al., 2020).”

“Trust in existing political institutions is negatively correlated with belief in conspiracies in general (Darwin, Neave, and Holmes 2011; Douglas and Sutton 2008; Goertzel 2014; Sutton and Douglas 2014).”

“In another study, Douglas and Sutton [36] showed that participants were affected by conspiracies regarding the death of Princess Diana even when they tried to discard the influence.”

“Douglas and Sutton (2011) found that projection mechanisms are also at work in conspiracy theory endorsement; hence, further research should explore the relations between Machiavellianism, the experiential/ intuitive system and conspiracy theory beliefs.”

“…in confirmation bias – people being drawn to interpretations of evidence which are related to or support an existing hypothesis, belief, or expecta- Copyright 2020, Facultas, Vienna 37 Digital Psychology 2020, Volume 1, Issue 2 tion – thus further fostering these beliefs (Douglas & Sutton, 2008).”

“To the best of our knowledge, however, the third postulated cognitive foundation of conspiracy theories, the hindsight bias, has not been the subject of empirical research yet (see Collins, 2012; Douglas & Sutton, 2008).”

“Prior research has shown that mere exposure to conspiracy theories can unconsciously influence people to believe in them [27].”

“People generally want to hold accurate beliefs (Kunda, 1990), yet political conspiracies, by their very nature, are based on unsubstantiated and often times dubious evidence (Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Kramer, 1998).”

“Alternative news sites mostly provide partisan information mixed with conspiratorial ideas, which then can increase beliefs in conspiracy theories in their audience (Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Garrett et al., 2016; Stempel et al., 2007).”

“Previous research has shown that exposing people to conspiracy theories about the death of Princess Diana increased people’s agreement with such narratives, without them being aware (Douglas & Sutton, 2008).”

“In addition, such studies typically displayed only one overarching conspiracy theory – conspiracy statements that are thematically related (e.g., conspiracy theories of Princess Diana's death; Douglas & Sutton, 2008; Jolley & Douglas, 2014a).”

“In academic research, especially in the fi elds of philosophy (Clarke, 2002; Keeley, 1999; Pigden, 1995), social psychology (Douglas and Sutton, 2008; Leman and Cinnirella, 2007) and political science (Dean, 1998; Gray, 2008; Heins, 2007), conspiracy theories have been an established subject of…”

“Previously, conspiratorial predispositions were measured by general statements that did not mention any specific conspiracies or groups (Imhoff & Bruder, 2014) or by a set of items tapping on different specific conspiracy beliefs that were then averaged to form an index (Douglas & Sutton, 2008).”

“…conspiracy, and with the reach of the internet aided by social media and hashtags, conspiracies target specific vulnerable groups by reinforcing impressions about the nonexistence of the pandemic, thereby opening the mind to conspiracy theories unknowingly as argued by Douglas and Sutton (2008).”