Dispelling the fog of conspiracy: experimental manipulations, individual difference factors and the tendency to endorse conspiracy explanations

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14560%2F25%3A00140648" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14560/25:00140648 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13546783.2025.2464962" target="_blank" >https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13546783.2025.2464962</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2025.2464962" target="_blank" >10.1080/13546783.2025.2464962</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Dispelling the fog of conspiracy: experimental manipulations, individual difference factors and the tendency to endorse conspiracy explanations

Original language description

In our study, participants (N = 672) were exposed to neutral, conspiracy or anti-conspiracy information about the purported link between COVID-19 vaccination among the Alaskan Natives and their opposition towards the US government’s oil drilling projects. Afterward, they rated their agreement with conspiracy explanations of the presented information and filled in measures of sociopolitical behavioural intentions, institutional trust and powerlessness. We also controlled for differences in Dark Tetrad, paranoia, conspiracy mentality and distress. We found no difference in conspiracy explanations between neutral and conspiracy conditions, suggesting that the topic of COVID-19 vaccines was highly saturated with conspiracy theories. Importantly, the anti-conspiracy intervention led to decreased conspiracy explanations irrespective of an individual’s conspiracy mentality. Although conspiracy explanations were correlated with reported sociopolitical behaviour and institutional distrust, we found no differences between the groups in these variables, highlighting the importance of further research on the effectiveness of interventions in this regard.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50100 - Psychology and cognitive sciences

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Thinking & Reasoning

ISSN

1354-6783

e-ISSN

1464-0708

Volume of the periodical

31

Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

32

Pages from-to

497-528

UT code for WoS article

001420396800001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85219688673