The Influence of Control on Belief in Conspiracy Theories: Conceptual and Applied Extensions

Summary Threats to control have been found to increase belief in conspiracy theories. We argue, however, that previous research observing this effect was limited in two ways. First, previous research did not exclude the possibility that affirming control might reduce conspiracy beliefs. Second, beca...

Celý popis

Uloženo v:
Podrobná bibliografie
Vydáno v:Applied cognitive psychology Ročník 29; číslo 5; s. 753 - 761
Hlavní autoři: van Prooijen, Jan-Willem, Acker, Michele
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: Bognor Regis Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2015
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Témata:
Belief & doubt
Beliefs
Conspiracy
Information control
Information processing
Information science
Theory
Threats
United States > US
ISSN:0888-4080, 1099-0720
On-line přístup:Získat plný text
Tagy: Přidat tag
Žádné tagy, Buďte první, kdo vytvoří štítek k tomuto záznamu!
Popis
Shrnutí:Summary Threats to control have been found to increase belief in conspiracy theories. We argue, however, that previous research observing this effect was limited in two ways. First, previous research did not exclude the possibility that affirming control might reduce conspiracy beliefs. Second, because of artificial lab procedures, previous findings provide little information about the external validity of the control threat–conspiracy belief relationship. In Study 1, we address the first limitation and find that affirming control indeed reduces belief in conspiracy theories as compared with a neutral baseline condition. In Study 2, we address the second limitation of the literature. In a large‐scale US sample, we find that a societal threat to control, that citizens actually experienced, predicts belief in a range of common conspiracy theories. Taken together, these findings increase insight in the fundamental relationship between the human need for control and the tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliografie:istex:257B3A37F9BEA05BAB8BA4211C526573701844CA
ArticleID:ACP3161
ark:/67375/WNG-8TP33NXR-2
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:0888-4080
1099-0720
DOI:10.1002/acp.3161