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A blog by four academic psychologists examining the psychology of conspiracy theories ...more info
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Recent Posts
- Fake news, conspiracy theories and the UK general election
- Conspiracy theories can sometimes bolster rather than undermine support for the status quo
- Conspiracy theories in the workplace
- What suspicion tells us about beliefs in conspiracy theories
- Exposure to conspiracy theories: Enduring over a two-week period
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Category Archives: Social psychology
Fake news, conspiracy theories and the UK general election
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
3 Comments
Conspiracy theories can sometimes bolster rather than undermine support for the status quo
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
8 Comments
Conspiracy theories in the workplace
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
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
Exposure to conspiracy theories: Enduring over a two-week period
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
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
5 Comments
The great Columbia conspiracy: Why Trump and others seem to contradict themselves on Obama’s past
So, I suppose we should talk about Donald Trump at some point. Trump might just be the most famous conspiracy-monger in the world at the moment. He’s flirted with, if not outright endorsed, a wide variety of conspiracy theories, ranging … Continue reading
Posted in Social psychology, World events
Tagged conspiracy theories, obama, psychology, trump, USA
3 Comments
Stress and belief in conspiracy theories
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 conspiracy theories, psychology, social psychology
5 Comments
How to stop Donald Trump peddling vaccine conspiracy theories
To nobody’s surprise, Donald Trump, the billionaire front-runner for the US Republican party’s nomination for presidential candidate, has continued to spread his views on the dangers of vaccination. Trump is no stranger to controversy, least of all when it comes to … Continue reading
Posted in Social psychology, What's the harm
Tagged american, conspiracy, donald, measles, republican, trump, USA, vaccine
12 Comments
The conspiracy theory label: Not as powerful as you might think
Calling something a conspiracy theory is basically an intellectual scarlet letter. It’s a way of dismissing something you don’t like, of placing something outside the bounds of reasonable discourse. “That’s just a conspiracy theory” is a depressingly effective way of … Continue reading
