scholarly journals Psychological Correlates of COVID-19 Conspiracy Beliefs and Preventive Measures: Evidence from Turkey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sinan Alper ◽  
Fatih Bayrak ◽  
Onurcan Yilmaz
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Uncertainty Avoidance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Cognitive Reflection ◽  
Psychological Correlates ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs

COVID-19 pandemic has led to popular conspiracy theories regarding its origins and widespread concern over the level of compliance with preventive measures. In the current preregistered research, we recruited 1088 Turkish participants and investigated (a) individual differences associated with COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs; (b) whether such conspiracy beliefs are related to the level of preventive measures; and (c) other individual differences that might be related to the preventive measures. Higher faith in intuition, uncertainty avoidance, impulsivity, generic conspiracy beliefs, religiosity, and right-wing ideology, and a lower level of cognitive reflection were associated with a higher level of belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories. There was no association between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and preventive measures while perceived risk was positively and impulsivity negatively correlated with preventive measures. We discuss the implications and directions for future research.

scholarly journals Just world beliefs, personal success and beliefs in conspiracy theories

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Furnham
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Composite Measure ◽  
Just World Beliefs ◽  
Just World ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal Ideology ◽  
Personal Success

AbstractDo those who believe in conspiracy theories feel less happy and healthy than others? Do they believe the world is simply unjust? This study was concerned with how demographic factors, personal ratings of success, personal ideology (political and religious beliefs) and Just World Beliefs are related to Conspiracy Theories. In total, 406 participants completed two questionnaires: Just World scale (Rubin & Peplau, 1975) and Conspiracy Theories Inventory (Swami et al., 2010) and provided various personal details. The Just World Scale yielded two scores: Just and Unjust beliefs. Participants also reported on their health, happiness and success and a reliable composite measure of well-being was computed. A regression showed younger males, with Unjust World beliefs and politically right-wing views, were more likely to endorse Conspiracy Theories. The discussion revolved around explaining individual differences in accepting these theories. Implications and limitations are discussed.

Clarifying the Relations between Intellectual Humility and Misinformation Susceptibility

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shauna Marie Bowes ◽  
Arber Tasimi
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Psychological Characteristics ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Cognitive Reflection ◽  
Three Samples

Misinformation is widespread and consequential. Thus, identifying psychological characteristics that might mitigate misinformation susceptibility represents a timely and pragmatically important issue. One construct that may be particularly relevant to misinformation susceptibility is intellectual humility (IH). As such, we examined whether IH is related to less misinformation susceptibility, what aspects of IH best predict misinformation susceptibility, and whether these relations are unique to IH. Across three samples, IH tended to manifest small-to-medium negative relations with misinformation susceptibility (pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and fake news). IH measures assessing both intrapersonal and interpersonal features tended to be stronger correlates of misinformation susceptibility than measures assessing either intrapersonal or interpersonal features in isolation. These relations tended to remain robust after controlling for covariates (honesty-humility, cognitive reflection, political ideology). Future research should leverage our results to examine whether IH interventions not only reduce misinformation susceptibility but also lessen its appeal for those already committed to misinformation.

scholarly journals Role of Conspiracy Mentality and Paranormal Beliefs in Predicting Conspiracy Beliefs Among Neopagans

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-97
Author(s):  
Asbjørn Dyrendal ◽  
Leif Kennair ◽  
James Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Political Identity ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Single Item ◽  
Political Identification ◽  
Gender And Education ◽  
Paranormal Beliefs ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Conspiracy Thinking

Recent studies on conspiracy thinking has concluded that the strongest predictor of the tendency towards conspiratorial thinking is a one-dimensional construct-conspiracy mentality-that is relatively stable over time and valid across cultures. Lantian et al. (2016) found that a single, elaborate question can work as a measure of conspiracy beliefs. We assess the validity of this question for an untypical, religious group: self-identified Neopagans. We also test some recent findings on the relation between conspiracy thinking and paranormal beliefs, attitudes towards group equality, political identification, age, gender, and education. The general patterns hold up well in our investigation, but there was a clear distinction between conspiracy theories about powerful actors and those about minorities. The single-item measure was the largest predictor of the former kind of conspiracy belief followed by level of paranormal beliefs. Anti-egalitarianism and holding a right-wing political identity were the strongest predictors of conspiracy beliefs about minorities. Education was negatively related to conspiracy beliefs of all kinds.

The Burden of Being Certain: National Identity Certainty Predicts Support for COVID-Related Draconian Measures and Outgroup Conspiracy Beliefs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaiyuan Chen ◽  
Jinghui Zhang ◽  
Xiang Ao ◽  
Jeffrey Ramdass
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Total N ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced various controversies. Some people debate about the usage of “draconian” measures of social distancing (e.g., lockdown). Others concern the origin of the pandemic with some buying conspiracy theories that attribute the cause of COVID-19 to the plot of some powerful outgroups. The current research examined national identity certainty (i.e., the certainty people placed in national identity) as predictor of these beliefs and attitudes. Two studies (total N = 625), one longitudinal and one cross-sectional, revealed that individual differences in national identity certainty predicted increased support of draconian measures and increased outgroup conspiracy beliefs. Moreover, realistic (but not symbolic) threat accounted for the increased support for draconian measures. Symbolic (but not realistic) threat accounted for the increased outgroup conspiracy beliefs. Our findings highlight how national identity certainty constrains individuals’ beliefs and attitudes towards issues related to the pandemic.

Partisanship, Individual Differences, and News Media Exposure as Predictors of Conspiracy Beliefs

2017 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 691-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry A. Hollander
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Individual Difference ◽  
News Media ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Media Exposure ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Fox News ◽  
Political World ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs

Conspiracy theories are woven into America’s social and political fabric. While such beliefs help some individuals organize their political world, their popularity also raise concerns about the health of a democracy when those governed also suspect powerful forces work against their interests. The research here examines national survey data to demonstrate such beliefs have both partisan and individual difference explanations. Generic news media exposure offers little explanatory power, but exposure to Fox News programming predicts greater belief in theories critical of Democrats.

scholarly journals Searching for General Model of Conspiracy Theories and Its Implication for Public Health Policy: Analysis of the Impacts of Political, Psychological, Structural Factors on Conspiracy Beliefs about the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seoyong Kim ◽  
Sunhee Kim
Keyword(s):  
Health Status ◽  
Perceived Control ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Quality Of Information ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
The Government

Along with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, beliefs in conspiracy theories are spreading within and across countries. This study aims to analyze predictors of beliefs in conspiracy theories. Because previous studies have emphasized only specific political, psychological, or structural factors or variables, this study constructs an integrated analytical model that includes all three factors. We analyze data from a large-scale survey of Koreans (N = 1525) and find several results. First, political, psychological, and structural factors influence beliefs in conspiracy theories. Second, when we examine the specific influences of the variables, we find that authoritarianism, support for minority parties, religiosity, trust in SNS (social networking services), perceived risk, anxiety, negative emotions, blame attribution, the quantity of information, health status, and health after COVID-19, all positively influence beliefs in conspiracy theories. Conversely, support for President Moon Jae-In’s government, Christianity, trust in the government, perceived control, analytic thinking, knowledge, the quality of information, and gender, all negatively impact these beliefs. Among the predictors, the quality of information, health status, support for President Moon Jae-In’s government, perceived risk, and anxiety have the most decisive impacts on beliefs in conspiracy theories.

scholarly journals Does extreme political ideology predict conspiracy beliefs, economic evaluations and political trust? Evidence from Sweden

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 435-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Krouwel ◽  
Yordan Kutiyski ◽  
Jan-Willem van Prooijen ◽  
Johan Martinsson ◽  
Elias Markstedt
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Political Understanding

A large volume of academic research has demonstrated that individuals who profess radical political ideology, both left- and right-wing, tend to share similar underlying psychological patterns. By utilizing data collected through a voting advice application in Sweden, this study aims to assess whether extreme leftists and rightists share similarities in the psychological and political understanding of how society functions. We propose three hypotheses to test this pattern: Extreme left and right individuals are more inclined to believe in conspiracy theories than moderates; they are more likely to have negative economic evaluations; and they are less politically and interpersonally trustful. By means of hierarchical regression analyses, we reveal a quadratic relationship between extreme political ideology and conspiracy beliefs. Moreover, we find a similar linkage between ideology and economic evaluations. However, the empirical analyses fail to provide evidence that extreme ideology is related to lower political and interpersonal trust.

scholarly journals Beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories predict lower level of compliance with the preventive measures both directly and indirectly by lowering trust in government medical officials

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Pavela Banai ◽  
Benjamin Banai ◽  
Igor Mikloušić
Keyword(s):  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Multiple Mediation ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a global health crisis, making compliance with governmental policies and public health advice crucial in decreasing transmission rates. At the same time, we are faced with the rapid spread of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the predictive power of COVID-19 conspiracy theories in explaining the level of compliance with official COVID-19 guidelines, by including mediating roles of pseudoscientific information beliefs and trust in government officials. A total of 1882 participants provided sociodemographic information and completed all measures in the study. Multiple mediation analysis revealed a direct negative effect of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs on the compliance with the preventive measures. In addition, conspiracy beliefs were indirectly associated with compliance via trust in government officials. The present study builds upon emerging research showing that conspiracy beliefs have potentially significant social consequences. Practical implications of these findings are further discussed.

scholarly journals The Differential Psychology of Environmental Protection/Exploitation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taciano L Milfont
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Self Transcendence

Differential psychology focuses on how people vary in the way they think, feel and act by measuring differences that distinguish individuals as more similar to themselves over time and across situations than others. In this article I review and discuss available evidence on key individual differences associated with protection and exploitation of the natural environment. The discussion centers on personality traits, basic human values, time perspective and system-justifying ideological orientations. Greater environmental protection has been shown to be consistently related to higher levels of Openness to Experience and Agreeableness traits (and somewhat Honesty-Humility), Self-Transcendence and Openness to Change values, and future thinking. In contrast, greater environmental exploitation is consistently related to higher levels of conservative political orientation, Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). Research examining individual differences provides useful theoretical information that can have applied benefits in designing communication strategies to bring individuals less prone to protect the natural environment on board. Issues with jangle fallacy (measures with different names might not necessarily assess different things) and direction for future research are also discussed.

Leadership style, group orientation of conspiracy beliefs and uncertainty in the era of COVID-19: Effects on moral leadership and leader identification and the moderating role of right-wing authoritarianism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theofilos Gkinopoulos ◽  
Stefano Pagliaro ◽  
Sofia Stathi ◽  
Manuel Teresi
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Style ◽  
Moral Leadership ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Group Orientation ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role

In this study, we investigate the effects of (a) group orientation of conspiracy theories and (b) leadership style on moral leadership, as well as the moderating role of right-wing authoritarianism in the relationship between group orientation of conspiracy beliefs and moral leadership and identification with the leader. We manipulated leadership style as democratic and despotic by producing two scenarios respectively, describing the leader of a fictional country. We also manipulated group orientation of conspiracy beliefs by producing a scenario about a conspiracy with the domestic government of the fictional country as the protagonist (in-group conspiracy) or a foreign country as the protagonist of the conspiracy (outgroup conspiracy). A pre-test study (N=100) provided evidence for the efficiency of our experimental manipulations. The main study employed a 2 (in-group vs. outgroup orientation conspiracy theories) x 2 (democratic vs despotic leadership) factorial design (N=480). Results showed that there was a statistically significant main effect of orientation of conspiracy beliefs on moral leadership and identification with the leader, a statistically significant main effect of leadership style and a statistically significant interaction effect between group orientation of conspiracy beliefs and leadership style on moral leadership and identification with the leader. A significant moderating effect of right-wing authoritarianism was found in the relationship between group orientation of conspiracy theories and perceptions of moral leadership and identification with the leader. Discussion focuses on the use of in-group or outgroup orientated conspiracy beliefs in moral leadership practice.

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