Believe It or Not – No Support for an Effect of Providing Explanatory or Threat-Related Information on Conspiracy Theories’ Credibility

Past research suggests that certain content features of conspiracy theories may foster their credibility. In two experimental studies ('N' = 293), we examined whether conspiracy theories that explicitly offer a broad explanation for the respective phenomena and/or identify a potential thre...

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Autores principales:	Marcel Meuer, Aileen Oeberst, Roland Imhoff
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR
Publicado:	Ubiquity Press 2021
Materias:	conspiracy theories conspiracy mentality explanation threat reception Psychology BF1-990
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e2dc4650a19b404f83e71d7b7f8b6a42
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e2dc4650a19b404f83e71d7b7f8b6a422021-11-08T08:08:22ZBelieve It or Not – No Support for an Effect of Providing Explanatory or Threat-Related Information on Conspiracy Theories’ Credibility2397-857010.5334/irsp.587https://doaj.org/article/e2dc4650a19b404f83e71d7b7f8b6a422021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.rips-irsp.com/articles/587https://doaj.org/toc/2397-8570Past research suggests that certain content features of conspiracy theories may foster their credibility. In two experimental studies ('N' = 293), we examined whether conspiracy theories that explicitly offer a broad explanation for the respective phenomena and/or identify a potential threat posed by conspirators are granted more credibility than conspiracy theories lacking such information. Furthermore, we tested whether people with a pronounced predisposition to believe in conspiracies are particularly susceptible to such information. To this end, participants judged the credibility of four conspiracy theories that varied in the provision of explanatory and threat-related information. Interestingly, the specific type of information provided was not decisive. Instead, credibility judgments were only driven by people’s predisposition to believe in conspiracies. Findings suggest that there is no mechanistic, almost automatic effect of merely adding specific information and highlight the relevance of people’s conspiratorial mindset for the evaluation of conspiracy theories.Marcel MeuerAileen OeberstRoland ImhoffUbiquity Pressarticleconspiracy theoriesconspiracy mentalityexplanationthreatreceptionPsychologyBF1-990ENFRInternational Review of Social Psychology, Vol 34, Iss 1 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR
topic	conspiracy theories conspiracy mentality explanation threat reception Psychology BF1-990
spellingShingle	conspiracy theories conspiracy mentality explanation threat reception Psychology BF1-990 Marcel Meuer Aileen Oeberst Roland Imhoff Believe It or Not – No Support for an Effect of Providing Explanatory or Threat-Related Information on Conspiracy Theories’ Credibility
description	Past research suggests that certain content features of conspiracy theories may foster their credibility. In two experimental studies ('N' = 293), we examined whether conspiracy theories that explicitly offer a broad explanation for the respective phenomena and/or identify a potential threat posed by conspirators are granted more credibility than conspiracy theories lacking such information. Furthermore, we tested whether people with a pronounced predisposition to believe in conspiracies are particularly susceptible to such information. To this end, participants judged the credibility of four conspiracy theories that varied in the provision of explanatory and threat-related information. Interestingly, the specific type of information provided was not decisive. Instead, credibility judgments were only driven by people’s predisposition to believe in conspiracies. Findings suggest that there is no mechanistic, almost automatic effect of merely adding specific information and highlight the relevance of people’s conspiratorial mindset for the evaluation of conspiracy theories.
format	article
author	Marcel Meuer Aileen Oeberst Roland Imhoff
author_facet	Marcel Meuer Aileen Oeberst Roland Imhoff
author_sort	Marcel Meuer
title	Believe It or Not – No Support for an Effect of Providing Explanatory or Threat-Related Information on Conspiracy Theories’ Credibility
title_short	Believe It or Not – No Support for an Effect of Providing Explanatory or Threat-Related Information on Conspiracy Theories’ Credibility
title_full	Believe It or Not – No Support for an Effect of Providing Explanatory or Threat-Related Information on Conspiracy Theories’ Credibility
title_fullStr	Believe It or Not – No Support for an Effect of Providing Explanatory or Threat-Related Information on Conspiracy Theories’ Credibility
title_full_unstemmed	Believe It or Not – No Support for an Effect of Providing Explanatory or Threat-Related Information on Conspiracy Theories’ Credibility
title_sort	believe it or not – no support for an effect of providing explanatory or threat-related information on conspiracy theories’ credibility
publisher	Ubiquity Press
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/e2dc4650a19b404f83e71d7b7f8b6a42
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Believe It or Not – No Support for an Effect of Providing Explanatory or Threat-Related Information on Conspiracy Theories’ Credibility

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