Conspiracy theories are abundant in social and political discourse, with serious
consequences for individuals, groups, and societies. However, psychological scientists have …

A tidal wave of research has tried to uncover the motivational and personological correlates
of conspiratorial ideation, often studying these two classes of correlates in parallel. Here, we …

Scholarly efforts to understand conspiracy theories have grown significantly in recent years,
and there is now a broad and interdisciplinary literature. In reviewing this body of work, we …

Conspiracy theories are part of mainstream public life, with the potential to undermine
governments, promote racism, ignite extremism and threaten public health efforts …

In this introduction to the EJSP Special Issue on conspiracy theories as a social
psychological phenomenon, we describe how this emerging research domain has …

Conspiracy theories are ubiquitous (eg, 9/11, COVID-19) and can have negative
consequences (eg, prejudice). Thus, there is an increasing need for evidence-based …

People endorse conspiracy theories particularly when they experience existential threat, that
is, feelings of anxiety or uncertainty often because of distressing societal events. At the same …

Highlights•Conspiracy beliefs have important political correlates and consequences, which
can undermine trust and participation in democratic processes.•They are not the preserve of …

Background The number of psychological studies on conspiracy beliefs has been
systematically growing for about a dozen years, but in recent years, the trend has intensified …

Although conspiracy theories have arguably always been an important feature of social life,
they have only attracted the attention of social psychologists in recent years. The last …