Are Conspiracy Theory Believers Drawn to Conspiratorial Explanations, Alternatives Explanations, Or Both?

• DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/ugrdb
• Publication Date: 2024-05-25T10:53:13Z
• Authors: Kenzo Nera; Paul Bertin; Mikey Biddlestone; Maude Tagand; Olivier Klein
• Keywords: 05 social sciences; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences

Individuals differ in their general propensity to believe conspiracy theories, often referred as mentality. Because prototypical theories exhibit a conspiratorial content (i.e., they claim that occurred) and an alternative status are rejected by authorities), it is unclear if mentality captures tendency conspiracies, endorse narratives, or narratives. To adjudicate between these interpretations, we carried out three experimental studies (Ns = 364, 772, 629) which experimentally manipulated the respective statuses (endorsed authorities vs. authorities) of competing non-conspiratorial explanations for fictitious controversial events. Overall, predicted endorsement rejection explanations. However, relationships were moderated When endorsed explanation explanation, either nullified (in Studies 1 & 3) attenuated study 2). These effects driven participants scoring low on measures, who reported lower when was authorities. They also stronger presented By contrast, believers’ unaffected status. findings informative what scales capture highlight need adopt more specific definitions psychological research theories.