Beliefs in Conspiracies, Marina Abalakina-Paap, Walter G. Stephan, Traci Craig and W. Larry Gregory
Beliefs in Conspiracies, Marina Abalakina-Paap, Walter G. Stephan, Traci Craig and W. Larry Gregory in ‘Political Psychology,’ Blackwell Publishers, Vol. 20, No. 3, 1999
p. 637 - ‘This study used canonical correlation to examine the relationship of 11 individual difference variables to two measures of beliefs in conspiracies. … These findings support the idea that beliefs in conspiracies are related to feelings of alienation, powerlessness, hostility, and being disadvantaged. There was no support for the idea that people believe in conspiracies because they provide simplified explanations of complex events.’
p. 638 - ‘This brief review of the theoretical and empirical literature on conspiracies suggests that there are five types of reasons that people believe in conspiracies:(a) they are alienated,(b) they feel powerless,(c) such conspiracies simplify a complex world, (d)conspiracies can be used to explain their problems, and (e)such beliefs provide an outlet for their hostility.We review each reason in turn and specify some personality dimensions that should be related to these reasons for believing in conspiracies.’
p. 639 - Speciation of the Simplification Hypothesis - ‘People who are low in need for cognition may find it easier to accept conspiracy theories as explanations of complex events than to face the ambiguities and subtleties of the real world. In a related vein,people who have a low tolerance for ambiguity may prefer the simplified explanations that conspiracy theories often offer over the multiple explanations offered by legitimate authorities.’
p. 640 - One of the tested hypotheses: ‘If beliefs in conspiracies help to simplify a complex world, beliefs in conspiracies should be negatively correlated with need for cognition, tolerance of ambiguity,and attributional complexity.’
p. 640 - Tests for belief in specific CTs and for the general belief in CTs (i.e. the possibility that there might be CTs).
p. 644 - ‘The hypotheses that suggested that beliefs in conspiracy theories would be associated with distrust of authority,hostility,feeling powerless,and being unfairly disadvantaged all found support in the results. However, the idea that beliefs in
conspiracies or attitudes toward the existence of conspiracies are related to a need
to seek simple explanations for complex events was not supported in this study.’
p. 646 - ‘…we found little support for one of the commonly cited reasons that people subscribe to conspiracy theories (i.e., to provide simple explanations for complex events).’
