Lecture 5 Flashcards
Conspiracy theories (Douglas, 2019)
Attempts to explain the ultimate causes of significant social and political events and circumstances with claims of secret plots by two or more powerful actors.
Science studies conspiracy theories from an epistemically agnostic perspective. Epistemically concerns knowledge/what we know, agnostic means it does not take a stance. Conspiracy can concern events (event-centred conspiracies) or groups of people (group-centered conspiracies)
Personality traits and conspiracy theories
Cichoka et al (2016) have shown that high self-esteem, individual narcissism, and paranoid thinking all correlate with the belief in conspiracy theories.
De Coninck et al (2024) confirmed that feelings of threats and anxiety fostered belief in conspiracy theories.
Education and belief in conspiracy theories
Van Prooijen (2016): education is one of the best predictors of believing in conspiracy theories
Motivation for conspiracy theories
Very often, our minds require specific needs to work properly. For instance, the need for closure. According to Marchlewska (2017), high levels of cognitive closure facilitates believing in conspiracy theories, but only for large, major events that do not have an official explanation. When an explanation is given, the need for closure diminishes, and lowers the level in believing in a conspiracy (uncertainty reduction).
Feeling the need for uniqueness x belief in conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theories were either described as believed by many people or a minority of people.
Need for uniqueness => Minority conspiracy theory => Don’t be a sheep.
Conspiracy mentality
The best way to predict someone’s belief in a specific conspiracy, is the fact that this person already believes in another conspiracy.
Scientific support was found for this, up to an absurd point
Self-actual gap
Conspiracy believers tend to have an overestimation of their own capacities in terms of critical thinking and information processing. They suppose they can handle information better than others, without the help of any advisor. However, it turned out that the more critical you tend to be, the less you adhere to conspiracy beliefs.
Inoculation
Vaccinating people against misinformation (giving people immunity/resistance to face conspiracy theories, “the virus”)
Inoculation involves a threat that is followed by a refutation:
- This provides arguments against future attacks
- Provides the possibility to train argumentation skills
Inoculation seemed to be working.
Meta-inoculation
Inoculation against inoculation (‘you are about to get advice with regards to conspiracy theories’). Both inoculation and meta-inoculation seemed to be working, as it decreased the effect of the initial inoculation procedure.
Intuitive thinking x conspiracy theories
Magical thinking: when you tempt faith something can happen, using some laws outside of reason (e.g., karma)
Conspiracies aim to find something that is hidden, to warn the world. Scientists try to find new things, not things that are purposefully hidden for a specific reason.
National narcissism
- Grandiose image of the nation
- Requires external validation
- Defensive about identity threats
Interesting for 2 reasons:
- Group behaviour, us vs them, fosters conspiracy beliefs
- Protection against threats
“If the Polish nation had a major say in the world, the world would be a better place”. National narcissism showed to predict COVID conspiracies.
National identification
“Being a Pole is an important part of who I am”
Does national identification predict COVID conspiracies? Yes, but negatively.
Fact based inoculation and pseudoscience classes were shown to be the most effective
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