Abstract
Paranoia and conspiracy thinking are known to be distinct but correlated constructs, but it is unknown whether certain types of conspiracy thinking are more common in paranoia than others. In a large (n = 1000), pre-registered online study we tested if endorsement of items on a new Components of Conspiracy Ideation Questionnaire varied according to whether harm was described as being (a) intentional and (b) self-referential. Our predictions were supported: paranoia was positively associated with endorsement of items on this questionnaire overall and more paranoid individuals were more likely to endorse items describing intentional and self-referential harm. Belief in any item on the Components of Conspiracy Ideation Questionnaire was associated with belief in others and items describing incidental harm and harm to others were found to be more believable overall. Individuals who endorsed conspiracy theory items on the questionnaire were more likely to state that people similar to them would as well, although this effect was not reduced in paranoia, counter to our expectations.
Highlights
Conspiracy theories have been defined as ‘attempts to explain the hidden causes of significant social and political events and circumstances with claims of secret plots by two or more powerful actors’ [1, p. 4] where these actors are often seen as malevolent [1]
Paranoia, the tendency to believe that harm will occur and that it is intended by other people, is associated with belief in conspiracy theories [2,3,4]
Agent presence and specificity conditions were explored in secondary analyses and we report the results of these manipulations in the electronic supplementary material
Summary
Conspiracy theories have been defined as ‘attempts to explain the hidden causes of significant social and political events and circumstances with claims of secret plots by two or more powerful actors’ [1, p. 4] where these actors are often seen as malevolent [1].
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