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Psychology of beliefs in conspiracy therories - Coggle Diagram
Psychology of beliefs in conspiracy therories
Intro
attractive story, apparent annomalies : conspiracy based on non scientific explanation of 'strange things' (change of feature for a celebrity...)
easy when long period of anxiety, uncertainty (wars), global warming, celebrities not dead!
what makes difference btw conspiracy theory and just an idea?
Explanation of socially important events in terms of causal agency of a number of people acting in secret
• Is elaborated against the offical version of the event
• Nefarious intentions of the conspirators
• Ties events that are seemingly unrelated
• Will to conceal the truth
• « errant data » are the building blocks of CTs (non sientific way of explaining)
Consequences of believing in CTs
Questions social hierarchies and governments
Reveal ambiguities in official versions, leads to political debate
– Negative attitudes towards human rights, civil liberties
– Racism, antisemitism, less integration of minorities
– CT about diseases => negative attitude toward contraception
– Less political engagement, less vaccination
– CT about climate change => less willingness to reduce carbon
footprint
– Negation of terrorist attack victims' suffering
– Conspiracy theories in sects: terrorist radicalization
– Post-truth, alternative facts, alternative reality
Epistemic aspects
Negative consequences of beliefs in CT
Politics:
– Negative attitudes towards human rights, civil liberties, democracy
– Racism, antisemitism, less integration of minorities
– Populism, oppressive regimes, nazism
– Less normative political engagement, more non-normative political action (e.g., violence)
Science:
– Diminution of science acceptance, prevention
– CT about diseases Æ more risky behaviors, less vaccination
– CT about climate change Æ less willingness to reduce carbon footprint
– Creationism, revisionism
Miscellaneous:
– Negation of terrorist attack victims' suffering
– Conspiracy theories in sects: terrorist radicalization
– Post-truth, alternative facts, alternative reality
– Distrust of media
Definition
Explanation of socially important events s in terms of causal agency of a number of people acting in secret (Keeley, 1999)
:arrow_forward: Serious accusations of conspiracy without sufficient proofs (Wagner-Egger, 2022)
Conspiracies: continuum of truth/falsity / from speculative to total delusion through frequency
some are true, some plausible, some delusional / religion of conspiracy : beliefs, accusations without proof / science of conspiracy : professional inquiries to find potential proofs
Occam's razor: simplest theories/hypotheses have to be
preferred = Presumption of innocence
Burden of proof for the more demanding hypotheses
Psychological aspects
Personality aspects
Paranoia, schizotypy, delusion
Anxiety
Narcissism
Honesty/humility (–)
Self-esteem (–)
Negative emotions
Machiavelllianism, psychopathy
Sadism, Psychosis-like experiences
Mental disorders, Depression
Dark triad
Dark tetrad
External attributions
Motivational aspects
Need for uniqueness
Uncertainty + bad morality
Lack of control
Meaning search
Present time orientation
Cognitive aspects
Anti-intellectualism
Bullshit receiptivity
Dogmatism
Subjectivism, cultural relativism
Rejection/distrust of science
Lack of knowledge
Overconfidence
Scientific reasoning, rationality (–)
Critical thinking, news media literacy (–)
Intelligence (–)
Doublethink
Jumping to conclusion bias
Confirmation bias
Intentionality/agency detection, anthropomorphism, teleology
Intuitive (vs. analytic, reflective) thinking
Proportionality bias
Conjunction fallacy
Alternative medecine
Religion
Influence of errant data
Randomness perception
Pattern Perception
Political, social and psychosocial aspects
Societal and political dimension
Educational level (–)
Objective (salary) and subjective SES (–)
Precarity
More children
Between countries:
Economic inequalities (Gini coefficient)
Democracy (–), political stability (–), Corruption
Unemployment
Political stability
Age (–)
Gender : it depends on the studies . for paranormal, woman believe more / rational are more masculine
Populism
Social Dominance Orientation
Single, loneliness
Interpersonal distrust, hostility
Bad attachment
Distrust of media
Anomia (distrust toward authorities, feelings of powerlessness, feelings of
dissatisfaction about one’s life, loss of control), system blame, minority status
IMPORTANT social domain : strongly correlated to conspiracy theories , far right politics gather the loosers of globalisation, people that were in competition with immigrants
Social aspects
Collective narcissism = Belief that the ingroup suffer from a lack of appreciation of its greatness
False consensus
= correlation
between own and others' opinions
Projection
Machiavellianism: "Never tell anyone the real reason you did something unless it is useful to do
so"
Moral prime: "In the first part of this experiment, we would like you to spend a few minutes
thinking of a time when you helped someone out. "
Contextual anxiety
Interpersonal aspects
Information from family/friends (COVID)
Social identity
Communicational aspects
Internet
Use of social media
Narrative quality
Summary of potential causes (correlates)
3 families (5 subdimensions) :
1a) Societal and political dimension: People from low SES (e.g. Yellow Vests in France): low educational level, younger, anomie, social exclusion, discriminated minority, political extremes (right > left)
1b) Social dimension: Intergroup rivalry (wars), CT accusing minorities
2a) Psychopathological dimension: Paranoid thoughts, schizotypy (light schizophrenia) : distrust toward others, hostile intentionsattribution, odd beliefs, anxiety, negative self-esteem, need for uniqueness, machiavelianism, narcissism, etc.
2b) Cognitive and irrational: paranormal beliefs, pseudo-profound bullshit, creationism, cognitive biases, intuitive (non analytic) thinking
3) Communicational dimension: narrative quality, Internet