Author Archives: Daniel Jolley

Prevention is better than cure: Addressing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Daniel Jolley

In a new paper that we have recently published, we found that people can be inoculated against the potentially harmful effects of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, but that once they are established, the conspiracy theories may be difficult to correct. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Social psychology, What's the harm | 3 Comments

Fake news, conspiracy theories and the UK general election

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Daniel Jolley

Popular conspiracy theories propose that members of UK government murdered Diana, Princess of Wales; climate change is a hoax orchestrated by the world’s scientists to secure research funding and pharmaceutical companies and governments cover up evidence of harmful side effects … Continue reading →

Posted in Social psychology, What's the harm | 5 Comments

Conspiracy theories can sometimes bolster rather than undermine support for the status quo

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Daniel Jolley

In a recent paper published in Political Psychology by myself from Staffordshire University and Karen Douglas and Robbie Sutton from the University of Kent, we found that conspiracy theories might be a way that people can maintain favourable attitudes towards society … Continue reading →

Posted in Round-Ups, Social psychology | 9 Comments

Conspiracy theories in the workplace

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Daniel Jolley

Conspiracy theories have been shown to have potentially detrimental consequences on political, environmental, and health-related behaviour intentions. We have discussed these consequences on the blog previously. Recently, psychologists have extended this and explored how conspiracy theories may also impact our day-to-day working … Continue reading →

Posted in Round-Ups, Social psychology, What's the harm | 5 Comments

Exposure to conspiracy theories: Enduring over a two-week period

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Daniel Jolley

We know that conspiracy theories may have some important negative societal consequences.  Conspiracy theories can discourage people from engaging with the political system, taking action against climate change and having a fictional child vaccinated. In each of these empirical investigations, … Continue reading →

Posted in Round-Ups, Social psychology, What's the harm | 5 Comments

Conspiracy theories and the campaign to Leave the EU

Posted on June 21, 2016 by Daniel Jolley

With colleagues at the University of Kent (Prof Karen Douglas and Dr Aleksandra Cichocka), we have written a piece in The Psychologist discussing conspiracy theories and the campaign to Leave the EU.  In short, we have found that belief in … Continue reading →

Posted in Social psychology, What's the harm, World events | 8 Comments

Stress and belief in conspiracy theories

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Daniel Jolley

A recent a piece of research published by Viren Swami and colleagues has uncovered a link between feeling stressed and belief in conspiracy theories. Swami and colleagues gathered responses from over 400 people, where the responders completed various measures, such … Continue reading →

Posted in Personality, Social psychology, What's the harm, World events | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Buffering conspiracy theories with feelings of control

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Daniel Jolley

The psychology of conspiracy theories is an ever-growing field. I have Google Scholar Alerts set up to let me know of new research and the alerts have been particularly active recently. It is great to see the field flourishing with activity. … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, What's the harm | Tagged , | 6 Comments

The 2015 general election and conspiracy theories

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Daniel Jolley

Millions of people in the United Kingdom will head to the polling stations on Thursday (7th May) to vote in the 2015 general election. There will however be a large portion of people, whilst eligible, will not cast their vote. … Continue reading →

Posted in What's the harm | 14 Comments

Ebola virus conspiracy theories

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Daniel Jolley

“How do you think the Ebola virus come about?” Created in a lab (on purpose) – 47% Created in a lab (by accident) – 10% Spread from bats/monkeys – 38% Cannibalistic ritual cover-up – 5% This is a poll question … Continue reading →

Posted in What's the harm | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments