Belief In Conspiracy Theories Research Articles

The Pitfalls of Epistemic Autonomy without Intellectual Humility

ABSTRACT Individuals who possess the virtue of epistemic autonomy rely upon themselves in their reasoning, judgment and decision making in virtuous ways. Philosophers working on intellectual virtue agree that if the pursuit of epistemic autonomy is not tempered by other virtues such as intellectual humility, it can lead to vices such as extreme intellectual individualism. Virtue theorists have made a number of empirical claims about the consequences of possessing this vice – e.g. that it will lead to significantly fewer epistemic goods and a greater number of faulty beliefs. This paper reports the results of two pilot studies and initial results from a larger series of studies that attempt to shed light on some of the intellectual pitfalls of pursuing unrestricted epistemic autonomy. The studies provide empirical support for the philosophical claim that epistemic autonomy and intellectual humility are mutually supporting virtues by showing that epistemic autonomy without intellectual humility leads to increased belief in misinformation, conspiracy theories and pseudoscience and decreased trust in scientific experts. They also reveal important contours of the complex and often delicate relationship between the virtue of epistemic autonomy and its more vicious cousin, strong intellectual individualism.

Belief in Conspiracy Theories about COVID-19 Vaccines among Brazilians: A National Cross-Sectional Study

Belief in Conspiracy Theories about COVID-19 Vaccines among Brazilians: A National Cross-Sectional Study

Group-oriented motivations underlying conspiracy theories

By assuming that a group of nefarious actors collude to harm a perceiver’s ingroup, conspiracy theories are an intergroup phenomenon. What are the group-oriented motivations underlying belief in conspiracy theories? This contribution proposes that conspiracy theories are associated with both symbolic, identity-based motivations and realistic, harm-based motivations. As symbolic motivations, conspiracy theories help people develop, maintain, and protect a positive social identity. Conspiracy theories can unite people through a shared belief system, provide a basis for favorable intergroup comparison, and enable perceivers to attribute ingroup status threats to external forces beyond their control. As realistic motivations, conspiracy theories prepare people for conflict with other groups. Conspiracy theories transform an abstract sense of distrust into concrete allegations of misconduct. This provides a signal that an outgroup is threatening, mobilizes the ingroup, and promotes a readiness to fight. I discuss the implications of these processes for theory and practice.

What Differentiates Believers and Non-Believers of Conspiracy Theories? A Structural Analysis of Semantic Networks Regarding the Social Representations of Covid-19 Pandemic

Belief in conspiracy theories is close related with the adoption of behavioral patterns often associated with a direct dispute of scientific research, institutional and governmental practices. The recent Covid-19 pandemic revealed an ecosystem of stories and narratives promoting alternative explanations about a real public threat. The exposure to these narratives and their persuasion towards people’s cognitive structures is a crucial issue to be examined to identify the different strategies implemented, by individuals and groups, in order to address a direct threat to society. In the current exploratory research, we examined whether believing in conspiracy theories about Covid-19 pandemic, is possible to predict semantic networks as cognitive structures. The analysis of the research findings provided different patterns of thought about individual exposure to Covid-19 conspiracy theories, their persuasiveness, and the different levels of compliance to (state-promoted) health measures.
 We discuss the importance of future research focusing on the level of acceptance of the role of different social institutions. A systematic analysis of conspiracy theories rationale is possible to address the cognitive bias organized on belief systems that offer a logical problem solving in social uncertainties. A more thorough study on the individual and group perception of the role of institutions, the level of their acceptance or dispute, as well as their direct and indirect impact on the development of socially responsible behaviors, within a shared social reality, could enhance our knowledge towards the development of effective social policies to confront the next public health crisis.

The dimensionality of vaccination intentions: One strain or multiple strains?

People likely have different attitudes toward different vaccines (e.g., they may hold a positive attitude toward the measles, mumps, and rubella-vaccine while simultaneously hold a neutral attitude toward the flu shot). To examine the dimensionality of vaccination intentions, we measured vaccination intentions toward 16 different diseases. We hypothesized that people differentiate between child-directed vaccination intentions and self-directed vaccination intentions. Furthermore, we hypothesized that some commonly studied factors (e.g., trust in authorities and fear of needles) might have different associations with the two subtypes of vaccination intentions. We used data from a nationally representative sample of the Netherlands collected in 2021. We used exploratory (N = 865) and confirmatory factor analysis (N = 865) to evaluate the dimensionality hypothesis and used linear hypothesis tests (N = 1,779) to test whether the commonly studied factors had different associations with the different subtypes of vaccination intentions. The analysis showed two distinct factors of vaccination intentions: intentions toward childhood diseases and intentions toward nonchildhood diseases. Additionally, spiritual beliefs, trust in authorities, and belief in conspiracy theories had stronger associations with nonchildhood diseases than with childhood diseases. Fear of needles, prosocial personality, and religious orthodox beliefs did not have different associations with both types of vaccination intentions. These findings suggest that vaccination intentions is a multidimensional construct and that interventions may benefit from being tailored to the factors relevant for each specific type of vaccine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Parliament, petitions and pandemic: Conspiracism in Australia's federal e‐petitions system, 2020−2021

AbstractDuring the COVID‐19 pandemic, some groups and individuals rearticulated state power through conspiracy theories. Despite their fringe status, conspiracy theory beliefs can directly animate citizen's engagements with institutions. Drawing on Barkun's ‘conventional’ and ‘stigmatised’ knowledge types, we analyse the appearance of conspiracism in citizen e‐petitions, and their rebuttal by government ministries. Our data are e‐petitions submitted to the House of Representatives in the Parliament of Australia between 2020 and 2021. Petitions and responses are snapshots of pandemic governance in motion: unfolding through contested interpretations of a diverse range of subjects including virology, immunisation and border security. The novel characteristics of conspiracist petitions allow theories to persist, irrespective of their place in wider society: they appropriate e‐petition system affordances, compete directly with institutions and officials, reframe events to maintain narratives over time, and serve as entrepreneurial activity for individual conspiracists. E‐petitions remain an essential democratic forum between citizens and federal parliament but represent challenges for policymaking and government communication in uncertain times.

Investigating Beliefs in Anti-Vax Conspiracy Theories among Medical Students.

While the doctors' role in immunization is essential, their lack of knowledge or vaccine hesitancy may affect their ability to communicate effectively and educate patients about vaccination, vaccine hesitancy, and vaccine conspiracy theories. This, in turn, may hinder health policy aimed at fighting infectious diseases. Vaccine hesitancy is prevalent not only among the general population but also among healthcare workers; thus, this study is aimed at assessing future doctors' attitudes towards anti-vax conspiracy theories. A total of 441 medical students at Poznan University of Medical Sciences completed a web-based survey designed to explore their attitudes toward the six most prevalent anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. The survey showed that although over 97% of future doctors support vaccinations as an effective form of fighting infectious diseases, and 80% did not believe in any anti-vax conspiracy theory, a significant fraction of 20% of medical students either believed in at least one such theory or were unsure. It has also shown that male and younger students who had not received a flu vaccination and defined themselves as politically right-wing or conservative and religious were more likely to believe in anti-vax conspiracy theories. Our data suggest that, in order to overcome medical students' ambivalent attitudes towards anti-vax conspiracy theories, they should receive more education about the importance of vaccination in preventing disease and about effective ways to combat vaccine hesitancy and anti-vax conspiracy theories.

Belief in conspiracy theories that differ in evil intentions: Correlations with anger and other traits

The present research extended past correlational research (Harmon-Jones & Szymaniak, 2023) by manipulating the mediator – evil perceptions – in the relationship between trait anger and conspiracy beliefs. This past research revealed that trait anger correlated positively with conspiracy beliefs and with perceiving conspirators to have more evil intentions. Moreover, perceived evil intentions statistically mediated the relationship between trait anger and conspiracy beliefs. The current research first created a questionnaire to manipulate the evil intentions associated with relatively novel and unknown conspiracy theories (Study 1). Then, trait anger and other personality characteristics were measured along with beliefs in the low- and high-evil conspiracy theories (Study 2). Results revealed that trait anger correlated positively with beliefs in both types of conspiracy theories. Moreover, trait anger continued to predict belief in high-evil conspiracy theories when statistically controlling for belief in low-evil conspiracy theories. A general conspiracy mentality yielded similar results. Discussion focuses on how perceiving evil intentions in conspiracy theories may be one explanation for why trait anger relates to conspiracy beliefs.

Conspiracy theory beliefs in the adolescent population: A systematic review.

While the study of conspiracy theory beliefs is a relatively new research area, there has been a rise in academic interest in recent years. The literature provides evidence of relationships between conspiracy theory beliefs and a range of factors, but the vast majority of studies are limited to adult samples, and it is unclear how such beliefs present in adolescence. The systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA-S format. Relevant databases were searched up to February 23, 2023, for quantitative studies related to adolescent conspiracy theory beliefs. The six included articles show that conspiracy theory beliefs are present from the start of adolescence, and stable from age 14 upwards, with correlations reported for mistrust and paranoid thinking. Negative relationships were reported for cognitive factors such as ontological confusion, cognitive ability, and actively open-minded thinking. Health-related beliefs correlated with adverse childhood experiences, peer problems, conduct, and sociodemographic factors. Right-wing authoritarianism and anxiety positively correlated with intergroup conspiracy theory beliefs. While some factors from adult studies are replicated in the review, there are differences between age groups. The age at which conspiracy theory beliefs begin to form indicate developmental aspects of adolescence, and possibly childhood, that require further examination. Cognitive factors show promise for interventions and should be explored further. However, the lack of studies using adolescent populations is an issue that must be resolved for a greater understanding of conspiracy theory beliefs and a move towardeffective interventions.

Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories and Online News Consumption during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories and Online News Consumption during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

Sexism and Feminist Conspiracy Beliefs: Hostile Sexism Moderates the Link Between Feminist Conspiracy Beliefs and Rape Myth Acceptance.

This research examined the effect of belief in feminist conspiracy theories and sexist ideology on endorsing rape myths. Study 1 (N = 201) uncovered that the relationship between feminist conspiracy beliefs and rape myth acceptance was conditional on higher levels of hostile sexism. Study 2 (N = 552) demonstrated that for those with higher hostile sexism, exposure to feminist conspiracy theories (vs. control) increased feminist conspiracy beliefs, which were then associated with rape myths. The current research suggests that the link between feminist conspiracy beliefs and rape myths could result from such beliefs upholding a hostile sexist view of women.

Media Exposure, Political Predispositions, and Conspiracy Theories: Explaining Chinese Beliefs in COVID Origins

Abstract This article examines the underpinning mechanisms of the Chinese public’s belief in two opposing conspiracy theories on the origins of coronavirus disease 2019. Utilizing survey data from 4,251 Chinese internet users, our study reveals both the universality and distinctiveness of mechanisms involved in conspiracy theory beliefs. The distinctiveness primarily emanates from the political system and its media environment, while universality is mainly attributed to the cognitive style of intuitive thinking. In China’s political system, exposure to either domestic or foreign media sources exerts substantial influence on public conspiracy beliefs. Notably, we emphasize the mediating role of political ideologies in domestic media exposure. Exposure to domestic media is more likely to lead conservative individuals to reject the conspiracy asserting COVID-19 originated in a lab in China. Concurrently, nationalism mediates foreign media exposure, reinforcing convictions of U.S.-centered conspiracies. This research shows how media narratives, molded by the political context, generate divergent perspectives on conspiracy theories in China. Furthermore, given the role of intuitive thinking in conspiracy beliefs, our findings highlight the potential for cultivating a more rational society through the promotion of analytical thinking, which requires the public to employ a deliberative and conscious cognitive process when exposed to highly politicized media content.

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy beliefs in Togo: Findings from two cross-sectional surveys.

Togo is a low-income country in West Africa. Estimates from Our World in Data suggest that only 25% of the Togolese population have received at least one dose of any COVID-19 vaccine by June 2023. Whilst the early phase of the pandemic vaccine rollout across 2021 was dominated by higher-income countries taking much of the available supply, there have long been sufficient supplies for all nations. Thus, there remains a need to understand reasons for low uptake in countries such as Togo, here focusing on population confidence and trust, essentially characteristics that could potentially be addressed within health promotion strategies. Two cross-sectional telephone surveys of Togo residents were conducted in December 2020 and January 2022. These surveys asked questions around perceptions of COVID-19, trust in public health messaging, belief in conspiracy theories, and hesitancy around COVID-19 vaccination. Analyses here focus on unvaccinated respondents. Across Survey 1 (N = 1430) and Survey 2 (N = 212), 65% of respondents were men, and 47% lived in Lomé (capital city of Togo). Between Surveys 1 and 2, overall hesitancy (33.0% to 58.0% respectively) and beliefs in conspiracy theories (29% to 65%) significantly increased. Using logistics regression, governmental mistrust was the strongest significant predictor of hesitancy (OR: 2.90). Participants who indicated agreement or uncertainty with at least one conspiracy belief also predicted greater vaccine hesitancy (OR: 1.36). Proactive approaches to public health messaging, that better understand reasons for hesitancy across different demographics, can support uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations within Togo. This includes health promotion campaigns that use locally and nationally trusted knowledge providers (e.g. the health service or religious leaders) for greatest effectiveness at reducing impact of misinformation. Key future research should focus around knowledge gaps and areas of mistrust created by the pandemic, such as the impact of misinformation upon routine immunisation uptake.

Inherent Attitudes or Misplaced Policies? Explaining COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Romania

hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines was not particularly high in Romania at the beginning of the vaccination campaign. Nevertheless, the country became one of the laggards in the European Union in terms of vaccination rates. We aim to provide an empirical explanation for this phenomenon based on a representative survey conducted in November–December 2021. We test the influence of various factors on vaccine hesitancy, such as personal experiences with the disease, trust in relevant institutions, general worldviews, and the contact with certain institutions, such as the Romanian Orthodox Church, and general practitioners. Furthermore, we find that three COVID-specific cognitive factors played a crucial role in this respect, namely the evaluation of anti-COVID state measures, belief in COVID-related conspiracy theories, and, especially, fears of negative effects of COVID-19 vaccines. The high explanatory power of these three factors also shows that low vaccination rates were not inevitable consequences of some “inherent” attitudinal characteristics widespread in the Romanian society; on the contrary, vaccine hesitancy has developed as an unfortunate side effect of weak crisis management, as the government and relevant state institutions failed to properly utilize key organizational resources, such as the national network of general practitioners, and proved to be unable to dissipate fears and countervail the spread of conspiracy theories, while emergency measures did not resonate enough among the Romanian public.

I can’t stop myself! Doomscrolling, conspiracy theories, and trust in social media

ABSTRACT This study furthers understanding of doomscrolling – obsessively looking for bad news on a mobile device to the detriment of one’s well-being – by examining reactions (negative feelings, information seeking, sharing) to doomscrolling. It also tests relationships among doomscrolling, belief in 2020 election conspiracy theories and trust in video- and text-based social media. Findings show that belief in conspiracies theories influences all three reactions to doomscrolling, but only sharing of doomscrolled information influences belief in conspiracy theories. Also, trust in text-based and video social media leads to negative reactions and information seeking, while trust in video social media promotes sharing doomscrolled news. Further, the more strongly survey respondents trust video-based social media, the more they believe conspiracy theories. But support for Trump during the 2020 election is the strongest predictor of belief in conspiracy theories, while support for Biden is a negative predictor.

People do change their beliefs about conspiracy theories—but not often

Recent research has produced a significant body of knowledge about the antecedents and consequences of individual differences in belief in conspiracy theories. What is less clear, however, is the extent to which individuals’ beliefs in conspiracy theories vary over time (i.e., within-person variation). In this descriptive and exploratory study, we therefore aimed to describe within-person variability in belief in conspiracy theories. We collected data from 498 Australians and New Zealanders using an online longitudinal survey, with data collected at monthly intervals over 6 months (March to September 2021). Our measure of conspiracy theories included items describing ten conspiracy theories with responses on a 5-point Likert scale. While there was substantial between-person variance, there was much less within-person variance (intraclass r = 0.91). This suggests that beliefs in conspiracy theories were highly stable in our sample. This stability implies that longitudinal studies testing hypotheses about the causes and consequences of belief in conspiracy theories may require large samples of participants and time points to achieve adequate power. It also implies that explanations of belief in conspiracy theories need to accommodate the observation that beliefs in such theories vary much more between people than within people.

Psychiatric and non-psychiatric patients during the midst of Covid-19: Pandemic distress, psychosis and the belief in conspiracy theories

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic was associated with increased levels of psychological distress in the general population, at the same time providing a perfect breeding ground for conspiracy beliefs. Psychiatric patients are considered as a population with an increased vulnerability for stressful events, and conspiracy beliefs show overlaps with paranoid ideations. The aim of the present study was to investigate if psychiatric patients experienced higher levels of pandemic distress than non-psychiatric patients, if they were more prone to conspiracy beliefs and if pandemic distress as well as other mental health variables were associated with believing in conspiracy theories. MethodsIndicators for mental health (pandemic distress, depressive symptoms, general anxiety symptoms, perceived stress) and indicators for believing in conspiracy theories were assessed within psychiatric (n = 73) and non-psychiatric patients (n = 29) during the midst of the pandemic. ResultsPsychiatric patients reported higher levels of pandemic distress than non-psychiatric patients. Conspiracy measurements correlated positively with pandemic distress, but not with anxiety and depression. No differences were found between psychiatric patients with or without psychotic disorder and non-psychiatric patients in regard to conspiracy measurements. ConclusionOur findings suggest a higher susceptibility of psychiatric patients to pandemic distress, but not an increased level of believing in conspiracy theories. The common notion that people suffering from psychosis are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories was not supported. Furthermore, distress caused by a specific event and not anxiety per se seems to be related to the degree of conspiracy beliefs.

Assessment of Factors Related to COVID-19 Preventive Health Behaviours Using a Health Belief Model

Abstract Non-pharmaceutical interventions, including physical distancing, hand hygiene, mask wearing, are some of the most effective public health interventions against COVID-19 spread. Adoption of these measures can vary in different countries and even in different populations within a country. The goal of our study was to investigate factors that influence adoption of these preventive health behaviours in the Latvian population within the Health Belief Model framework, while also expanding on the models cues to action dimension by testing if evaluation of COVID-19-related government actions and belief in COVID-19 related conspiracy theories could be used as such. Our quantitative cross-sectional study that was carried out in Latvia before the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic included two samples of major population language groups (nLatvian = 452; nRussian = 190) and showed differences that could potentially improve adoption of preventive health behaviours in Latvia if regarded in informing and educating the public. It was also found that evaluation of COVID-19-related government actions has statistically significant impact on preventive health behaviour and could be used as cues to action within the HBM, while belief in COVID-19-related conspiracy theories had no association with preventive health behaviour.

No evidence that belief in conspiracy theories is negatively related to attitudes toward transhumanism.

Transhumanism is a movement that emphasizes the improvement of the human condition by developing technologies and making them widely available. Conspiracy theories regularly refer to the allegedly transhumanist agenda of elites. We hypothesized that belief in conspiracy theories would be related to more unfavorable attitudes toward the transhumanist movement. We examined this association through two pre-registered studies (based on two French samples, total N after exclusion = 550). We found no evidence of a negative relationship between belief in conspiracy theories and attitudes toward transhumanism. This null result was further corroborated by Bayesian analysis, an equivalence test, and an internal mini meta-analysis. This work plays a precursory role in understanding attitudes toward an international cultural and intellectual movement that continues to grow in popularity and influence.

With God We Distrust! The Impact of Values in Conspiracy Theory Beliefs About Migration in Serbia

Immigrants are a popular target of conspiracy theories. Despite the urgent relevance of the topic all around the world today, the number of studies on conspiracy theories about migrants and immigration is limited. Helping to fill this important gap in the academic literature, the research analyses conspiracy theory beliefs about migrants and immigration in contemporary Serbia through survey data from a nationally representative sample (N = 1199). Expanding on the Weberian theory of rationality, the study proposes that people’s values about national sovereignty, social conservatism, and religiosity influence their predispositions to believe in conspiracy theories about migrants and immigration. The findings corroborate the argument by showing a statistically significant link between people’s political, social, and religious values and responses to conspiracy theories. The article concludes that values could play a significant role in people’s adoption of conspiracy theories.