How Political Orientation and Vulnerability Shape Representations of the Economic Crisis in Greece and Italy

Rejection of the status quo: Conspiracy theories and preference for alternative political systems

Conspiracy theories introduce a democratic paradox, as belief in conspiracy theories predicts support for both democratic and non-democratic political systems. In this article, we explore whether democratic and anti-democratic attitudes, resulting from conspiracy beliefs, can be mutually exclusive. In Study 1 (United Kingdom, N = 293), we show that belief in conspiracy theories is associated with decreased support for representative democracy, and increased support for direct democracy, anarchism, and autocracy within the same individuals. In Study 2 (United States, N = 302, pre-registered), we experimentally show that the perceived presence of conspiracies is linked to an increased preference for direct democracy, anarchism, and autocracy and decreased support for representative democracy. Mediational analyses suggest that widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo and, less consistently, feelings of political cynicism mediate the relationships between conspiracy beliefs and (anti-)democratic attitudes. In Study 3 (United States, N = 400, pre-registered), we experimentally manipulate (dis)satisfaction with the status quo. Results indicate that rejecting the status quo increases support for direct democracy, anarchism, and autocracy and decreases support for representative democracy. Overall, our findings suggest that people who believe in conspiracy theories tend to favour both democratic and anti-democratic political alternatives, largely attributed to citizens' desire to change the status quo.

What Are Conspiracy Theories? A Definitional Approach to Their Correlates, Consequences, and Communication

Conspiracy theories are abundant in social and political discourse, with serious consequences for individuals, groups, and societies. However, psychological scientists have started paying close attention to them only in the past 20 years. We review the spectacular progress that has since been made and some of the limitations of research so far, and we consider the prospects for further progress. To this end, we take a step back to analyze the defining features that make conspiracy theories different in kind from other beliefs and different in degree from each other. We consider how these features determine the adoption, consequences, and transmission of belief in conspiracy theories, even though their role as causal or moderating variables has seldom been examined. We therefore advocate for a research agenda in the study of conspiracy theories that starts-as is routine in fields such as virology and toxicology-with a robust descriptive analysis of the ontology of the entity at its center.

The devil is not as black as he is painted? On the positive relationship between food industry conspiracy beliefs and conscious food choices

Previous research found that conspiracy beliefs were usually activated when individuals faced different types of psychological threats and that they led mainly to maladaptive individual and societal outcomes. In this research, we assumed that potential harmfulness of conspiracy beliefs may depend on the context, and we focused on the link between food industry conspiracy beliefs and conscious food choices. We hypothesized that food industry conspiracy beliefs may allow for a constructive attempt to protect oneself against real or imagined enemies (i.e., food industry companies) by conscious food choices (e.g., paying attention to how much the food products are processed). We tested this hypothesis among Polish participants (Study 1; N = 608; cross-sectional and Study 2; N = 790; experimental). Study 1 confirmed that context-specific conspiracy beliefs (but not general notions of conspiracy) are associated with adaptive consumer behaviors. Study 2 showed that inducing feelings of threat related to the possibility of purchasing food contaminated by a harmful bacteria (vs. control condition) increased food industry conspiracy beliefs, which were further positively linked to conscious food choices. We discuss the role of threat and conspiracy beliefs in adaptive consumer behaviors related to food choices.

A Cluster Analysis of the Acceptance of a Contact Tracing App—The Identification of Profiles for the Italian Immuni Contact Tracing App

Digital contact tracing apps have been introduced by governments as a strategy to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital contact tracking is an alternative to traditional contact tracing performed by human tracers who have to reconstruct each contact an infected person had in the recent past by means of interviews. The Italian government proposed the Immuni digital contact tracking app as a solution. Immuni uses Bluetooth technology to anonymously register all close contacts a person had: if she tests positive for COVID-19 then all registered contacts are notified. The main aim of the paper is to propose a cluster analysis of some factors concerning the possible acceptance of the Immuni app to build behaviour profiles that explain and predict the possible behaviours of the respondents. The factors considered referred to three different pillars: the technological pillar, investigated by considering factors from the technology acceptance models family; the health pillar, where variables of the health belief model were used; and the sociopolitical pillar, where some values of the respondents were considered as possible barriers to or facilitators of the acceptance of this technology. As a result of the cluster analysis, three behavioural profiles were built: the ProApp profile, the Hesitant profile, and the AntiApp profile. The first is the profile grouping the respondents who intend to use the contact tracing app; the second is more about people who are favourable of the use of the app, but some issues such as privacy reduce the strength of their intention; the last profile is about people who are less favourable to use the app. We are confident that the behaviour profiles found would be useful to build more tailored communication campaigns to help promote the use of the app by managing factors that could either be facilitators or barriers.

The Paradox of Conspiracy Theory: The Positive Impact of Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories on Preventive Actions and Vaccination Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aims to analyze the direct and indirect impact of beliefs in conspiracy theories on COVID-19-related preventive actions and vaccination intentions. The dominant theory in the literature is that beliefs in conspiracy theories have negative consequences. In particular, strong beliefs in conspiracy theories lower people’s intentions to engage in preventive actions and get vaccinated. Previous studies indicated that this dominant theory applies in Korea as well. However, we find that this dominant theory does not apply in Korea. Based on an analysis of survey data, we find that beliefs in conspiracy theories have positive impact on preventive actions and vaccination intentions. In addition, beliefs in conspiracy theories play indirect roles in these two responses to COVID-19. Specifically, when perceived benefits and trust in the government or science enhance preventive actions or increase vaccination intentions, strong beliefs in conspiracy theories promote this effect. This positive role of conspiracy theories is paradoxical because they are generally viewed as negative.

Are Conspiracy Theories Harmless?

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the consequences of conspiracy theories and the COVID-19 pandemic raised this interest to another level. In this article, I will outline what we know about the consequences of conspiracy theories for individuals, groups, and society, arguing that they are certainly not harmless. In particular, research suggests that conspiracy theories are associated with political apathy, support for non-normative political action, climate denial, vaccine refusal, prejudice, crime, violence, disengagement in the workplace, and reluctance to adhere to COVID-19 recommendations. In this article, I will also discuss the challenges of dealing with the negative consequences of conspiracy theories, which present some opportunities for future research.