Category Archives: Social psychology

Cartoon on the psychology of conspiracy theories

Posted on November 11, 2018 by

In June 2018, I was voted one of the winners of ‘I’m a Scientist’ – which is an online platform to engage school children in science where across a two-week period, I spoke to children of all ages about why … Continue reading →

Posted in Round-Ups, Social psychology

Every mass shooting produces the same conspiracy theories (more or less)

Posted on February 22, 2018 by

The same conspiracy theories pop up every single time there’s a mass shooting in the United States, with minimal variation. There are a couple of ways to look at this. On the one hand, maybe the conspiracy theories are right, … Continue reading →

Posted in Social psychology, World events | Tagged , , | 38 Comments

Adam Ruins Everything: Episode on conspiracy theories

Posted on October 9, 2017 by

This week, US TV Show Adams Ruins Everything has an episode on conspiracy theories.  If you are in the US, you can tune in on 10th October 10/9c on Tru TV.  If you are not based in the US, you … Continue reading →

Posted in Social psychology | 6 Comments

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

Posted on June 30, 2017 by

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

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

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

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

What suspicion tells us about beliefs in conspiracy theories

Posted on November 8, 2016 by

Have a look at the statements below, and think about how much you agree with each of them on a 1-5 scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). The real truth about 9/11 is being kept from the public. … Continue reading →

Posted in Social psychology | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

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

Posted on August 8, 2016 by

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

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 | 7 Comments