2015/02/25 by Neil Dagnall, Kenneth Drinkwater, Andrew Parker +2 · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Neuroscience · Arts and Humanities · #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Media Influence and Health
paper · pdf · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00206
openalex publication_date 2015/02/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
This paper assessed whether belief in conspiracy theories was associated with a particularly cognitive style (worldview). The sample comprised 223 volunteers recruited via convenience sampling and included undergraduates, postgraduates, university employees, and alumni. Respondents completed measures assessing a range of cognitive-perceptual factors (schizotypy, delusional ideation, and hallucination proneness) and conspiratorial beliefs (general attitudes toward conspiracist thinking and endorsement of individual conspiracies). Positive symptoms of schizotypy, particularly the cognitive-perceptual factor, correlated positively with conspiracist beliefs. The best predictor of belief in conspiracies was delusional ideation. Consistent with the notion of a coherent conspiratorial mindset, scores across conspiracy measures correlated strongly. Whilst findings supported the view that belief in conspiracies, within the sub-clinical population, was associated with a delusional thinking style, cognitive-perceptual factors in combination accounted for only 32% of the variance.