The Susceptibility To Conspiracy Theories In Relation To The Relevance Of The Conspiracy Theory And The Need For Uniqueness - Info and Reading Options

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We believe that prior research on conspiracy theories (CTs) has not put sufficient emphasis on qualitative difference between different CTs. Among other, we think that conspiracy theories differ from each other in their relevance. "Conspiracy theories are attempts to explain the ultimate causes of significant social and political events and circumstances with claims of secret plots by two or more powerful actors" (Douglas et al., 2019, p. 4, emphasis ours). This definition indicates that people strongly believe in CTs referring to particularly important events. In addition, conspiracy theories are believed to satisfy existential (helplessness, fear of existence, loss of control, ...), social (protection of social identity, possibility to show individuality, ...) and epistemic motives (gaining knowledge in the face of uncertainty, ...) (Douglas et al, 2019). Accordingly, an event, which a conspiracy refers to, has to trigger these motives in order to prompt people to explain it with conspiratorial narratives. We assume that events, which trigger these motives, are of more relevance on an individual level and will, thusly, be associated with comparatively stronger conspiratorial belief. Therefore, CTs may be divided into two categories: On the one hand, there are relevant CTs, which are associated with a stronger belief and are used more often to satisfy existential, social and epistemic motives. On the other hand, there are less relevant CTs, which are associated with a weaker belief because there isn't a need to satisfy existential, social and epistemic motives. Moreover, CTs can be used to satisfy individuals’ need for uniqueness (NfU; Imhoff & Lamberty, 2017).Besides, Imhoff & Lamberty (2017) also showed that people with a high need for uniqueness report a stronger belief in a specific CT, which were rejected by the majority (vs. accepted by a majority). We assume that relevant CTs (as defined above) are more useful compared to less relevant CTs because of their immanent characteristic to explain significant political and social events. Accordingly, a majority will be more inclined to believe in relevant (vs. Irrelevant) CTs and only a minority might believe in less relevant CTs. Therefore, following a less relevant CT is far more indicative of uniqueness compared to following a more relevant CT: we assume the people with a high need for uniqueness believe stronger in less relevant CTs than in relevant CTs.

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