Over the last two decades, and in particular over the last five years, there has been a growing scientific interest in conspiracy theories and people who believe in them.
Over the last two decades, and in particular over the last five years, there has been a growing scientific interest in conspiracy theories and people who believe in them. Although, some may think belief in such stories is linked to intelligence, research is beginning to show that how people think could be more important.
Scientists agree that having a measure of skepticism about official accounts of moments is healthy and important, but conspiracy theorising can lead to dangerous consequences for the individu and for society.
Some conspiracy theories, for example the QAnon conspiracy, can be considered a minority belief, with a 2021 YouGov poll showing that 8% of those polled in the UK endorsed this conspiracy theory. However, some beliefs are more widespread. A 2018 survei of people from around Europe found 60% of British participants endorsed at least one conspiracy theory. So, who are the people who are more susceptible to conspiracy theorising?
There is a dramatically growing bodi of research endeavouring to understand this question. First, let's re-examine those assumptions about who engages with conspiracy theories.
People with high education levels, such as doctors and nurses, have been reported to propagate conspiracy theories. So it's not just about intelligence - education won't necessarily make you immune.
Research shows that our thinking model can be predictive of susceptibility to conspiracy theories. The dual processing theory of cognitive model suggests that we have two routes which we can use to process information.
One route is the fast, intuitive route which leans more on individual experiences and gut feelings. The other route is a slower, more analytical route which instead relies on elaborative and detiled processing of information.
What you tend to see is that people who are not necessarily smarter but who favour the more usahaful, analytical thinking model are more resistant to conspiracy beliefs. For example, a British 2014 studi found that those who scored highly for questions such as "I santai problems that require hard thinking" were less likely to accept conspiracy beliefs. It also found those who were less likely to engage in usahaful thinking styles and more likely to use intuitive thinking showed a higher belief in conspiracy theories.
Similarly, a 2022 studi across 45 countries used a cognitive reflection tes, which measured engagement in analytical thinking in three questions. It found that participants who engaged in the labour intensive thinking model were less likely to endorse COVID 19 conspiracy theories.
Critical thinking is a valuable kemampuan, particularly within education, and has been shown to buffer susceptibility to conspiracy beliefs. This is probably because this more arduous thinking model allows people time to identify inconsistencies in theories and look to additional sumber to verify information.
