Conspiracy Theories

Researchers compared historical data to results of current opinion polls and found no evidence that the percentage of people who believe in conspiracy theories has increased in comparison to previous times.

The outcome of an election can influence voters’ conspiracy beliefs, according to study findings published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology. Following the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Trump voters endorsed more conspiracy beliefs about the Democratic party, while Biden voters endorsed...

New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides evidence that voters in Georgia who embraced Donald Trump's claims of widespread election fraud were less likely to cast their ballot in a pivotal runoff election.

While right-wingers are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than left-wingers, new findings suggest that this effect is weaker in countries with high corruption. Presumably, corrupt environments increase the plausibility of conspiracies so that all citizens are more likely...

Research on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic has shown an increase in depressive symptoms and anxiety. The pandemic has also spurred heavy discussion on social media platforms which has given rise to the prevalence of COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs....

New findings published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology indicates that economic inequality increases susceptibility to belief in conspiracy theories. The research provides evidence that the perception of societal breakdown is a key pathway between inequality and conspiracy beliefs.

A study published in Political Behavior examined large data sets from both the United States and 20 countries spanning 6 continents, finding that the political left and right are equally likely to believe in conspiracy theories.

New research published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology suggests that a tendency to readily believe conspiracy theories coincides with a general mistrust of others. Two experimental studies found that people with a higher conspiracy mentality were less trusting of unfamiliar faces,...

Why are some people so quick to believe dubious claims over well-established science? A study published in Personality and Individual Differences suggests that people who reject the COVID-19 vaccine are more likely to believe "alternative facts" and that this is...

Human cognition is now so intertwined the internet, a knowledge-sharing system that can be accessed any time anywhere, that the boundaries between individual knowledge (i.e., personal memory) and collective knowledge (i.e., external online information) are becoming increasingly blurred. In other...

A recent study explores the psychology behind labeling ideas as conspiracy theories. The findings, published in the British Journal of Psychology, suggest that labeling a statement as a conspiracy theory does not make it less believable. Instead, less believable claims are more...

A large study published in the journal Political Psychology suggests that the link between conspiracy belief and religiosity is rooted in cognitive similarities between the two beliefs. The overall findings suggest that people with higher conspiracy belief also tend to be more...

The Five Factor Model of Personality (also known as The Big Five) refers to the traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Of these, neuroticism, which refers to emotional instability, is linked to cognitive failures such as inattentiveness. New...

A large-scale project involving over 100,000 people from 26 countries concluded that conspiracy mentality was associated with extreme left- and right-wing beliefs, and that this effect was stronger among voters of opposition parties (i.e., voters deprived of political control). This...

New research published Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin provides evidence that national narcissism is strongly tied to the spread of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. National narcissism, a type of collective narcissism, refers to the belief that one's nation is exceptional and...