Something's Going on Here: Psychological Predictors of Belief in Conspiracy Theories https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3176533
> Finally, there may be a set of cognitive tendencies that combine with or > augment the > association between broader or more motivation- and emotion-based personality > traits on > conspiracy beliefs. In other words, conspiracy mentality may in part reflect > particular > information-processing dispositions. For example, people who are prone to > detecting agency— > intention—behind events and actions should be more likely to entertain the > possibility of > conspiracy, and research supports this hypothesis (Douglas, Sutton, Callan, > Dawtry, & Harvey, > 2016; van der Tempel & Alcock, 2015). Along similar lines, individuals’ > eagerness to seek or > find meaning or patterns in ambiguous or random information might predispose > conspiratorial > thinking. Evidence for this can be seen in research showing that people > higher in bullshit > receptivity—a tendency to perceive profundity in nonsensical but > superficially meaningful > ideas—are more likely to engage in conspiratorial ideation (as well as to > hold paranormal beliefs; > Pennycook, Cheyne, Barr, Koehler, & Fugelsang, 2015). The same is true of > people who are less > likely to engage in analytical thinking (Swami, Voracek, Steiger, Tran, & > Furnham, 2014) or > more likely to rely on heuristics (Moulding et al., 2016). Given associations > between agency > detection and supernatural beliefs (van Elk, 2013), it also seems possible > that religious > worldviews would be associated with conspiracy beliefs (i.e., because agency > detection may be a > common cognitive mechanism underlying both). -- ☣ uǝlƃ ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
