The Role of Conspiracy Mentality and Paranormal Beliefs in Predicting Conspiracy Beliefs Among Neopagans
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.36716Keywords:
Conspiracy beliefs, paranormal beliefs, Paganism, social dominance orientation, conspiracy mentalityAbstract
Recent studies on conspiracy thinking has concluded that the strongest predictor of the tendency towards conspiratorial thinking is a one-dimensional construct-conspiracy mentality-that is relatively stable over time and valid across cultures. Lantian et al. (2016) found that a single, elaborate question can work as a measure of conspiracy beliefs. We assess the validity of this question for an untypical, religious group: self-identified Neopagans. We also test some recent findings on the relation between conspiracy thinking and paranormal beliefs, attitudes towards group equality, political identification, age, gender, and education. The general patterns hold up well in our investigation, but there was a clear distinction between conspiracy theories about powerful actors and those about minorities. The single-item measure was the largest predictor of the former kind of conspiracy belief followed by level of paranormal beliefs. Anti-egalitarianism and holding a right-wing political identity were the strongest predictors of conspiracy beliefs about minorities. Education was negatively related to conspiracy beliefs of all kinds.
References
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Altemeyer, R. A. 1981. Right-Wing Authoritarianism. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
Asprem, E. and A. Dyrendal. 2015. “Conspirituality reconsidered: How surprising and how new is the confluence of spirituality and conspiracy theory?” Journal of Contemporary Religion 30(3): 367–382. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2015.1081339
----- In press “Close companions? Esotericism and conspiracy theories.” In Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion, edited by A. Dyrendal, D. G. Robertson and E. Asprem, 207–233. Leiden: Brill.
Aupers, S. 2012. “‘Trust No one’: Modernization, paranoia, and conspiracy culture.” European Journal of Communication 27(1): 22–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323111433566
Bader, C. D., F. C. Mencken and J. O. Baker. 2010. Paranormal America. New York: New York University Press.
Barkun, M. 1994. Religion and the Racist Right. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
----- 2003. A Culture of Conspiracy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Barron, D., K. Morgan, T. Towell, B. Altemeyer and V. Swami. 2014. “Associations between schizotypy and conspiracist ideation.” Personality and Individual Differences 70: 156–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.06.040
Barron, D., A. Furnham, L. Weis, K. D. Morgan, T. Towell and V. Swami. 2018. “The relationship between schizotypal facets and conspiracist beliefs via cognitive processes.” Psychiatry Research 259: 15–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.10.001
Baylor University. 2005. The Baylor Religion Survey, Wave 1. Waco, TX: Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion.
Berger, H. A. 2009. “Contemporary paganism by the numbers.” In Handbook of Contemporary Paganism, edited by J. R. Lewis and M. Pizza, 153–170. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004163737.i-650.48
Berger, H. A., E. A. Leach and L. S. Shaffer. 2003. Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Bilewicz, M., A. Cichocka and W. Soral, eds. 2015. The Psychology of Conspiracy. London: Routledge.
Brotherton, R. and C.C. French. 2015. “Intention seekers: Attention seekers and biased attribution of intentionality.” PLoS ONE 10(5): e0124125. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124125
Brotherton, R., C. C. French and A. Pickering. 2013. “Measuring conspiracy theories: The generic conspiracist beliefs scale.” Frontiers in Psychology 4: 279. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00279
Bruder, M., P. Haffke, N. Neave, N. Nouripanah and R. Imhoff. 2013. “Measuring individual differences in generic beliefs in conspiracy theories across cultures: Conspiracy mentality questionnaire.” Frontiers in Psychology 4: 225. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00225
Butter, M. 2014. Plots, Designs, and Schemes. American Conspiracy Theories from the Puritans to the Present. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110346930
Butter, M. and M. Reinkowski, eds. 2014. Conspiracy Theories in the United States and the Middle East. A Comparative Approach. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110338270
Dagnall, N., K. Drinkwater, A. Parker, A. Denovan and M. Parton. 2015. “Conspiracy theory and cognitive style: A worldview.” Frontiers in Psychology 6: 206. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00206
Darwin, H., N. Neave and J. Holmes. 2011. “Belief in conspiracy theories: The role of paranormal belief, paranoid ideation and schizotypy.” Personality and Individual Difference 50(8): 1289–1293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.02.027
Douglas, K. M., R. M. Sutton, M. J. Callan, R. J. Dawtry and A. J. Harvey. 2016. “Someone is pulling the strings: Hypersensitive agency detection and belief in conspiracy theories.” Thinking and Reasoning 22: 57–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2015.1051586
Dyrendal, A. 2017. “New Age and Norwegian ‘conspirituality’.” In New Age in Norway, edited by I. S. Gilhus, S-E Kraft and J. R. Lewis,159–181. Sheffield: Equinox.
Dyrendal, A., D. G. Robertson and E. Asprem, eds. In press Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion. Leiden: Brill.
Farias, M., G. Claridge and M. Lalljee. 2005. “Personality and cognitive predictors of new age practices and beliefs.” Personality and Individual Differences 39: 979–989. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.04.003
Farias, M. and P. Granqvist. 2006. “The psychology of the New Age.” In Handbook of New Age, edited by D. Kemp and J. R. Lewis, 123–150. Leiden: Brill.
Gardell, M. 2003. Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822384502
Goertzel, T. 1994. “Belief in conspiracy theories.” Political Psychology 154: 731–742. https://doi.org/10.2307/3791630
Goodrick-Clarke, N. 2003. Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. New York: New York University Press.
Gray, M. 2010. Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World. New York: Routledge
Ho, A. K., J. Sidanius, F. Pratto, S. Levin, L. Thomsen, N. Kteily and J. Sheehy-Skeffington. 2012. “Social dominance orientation: Revisiting the structure and function of a variable predicting social and political attitudes.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 385: 583–606. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211432765
Ho, A. K., J. Sidanius, N. Kteily, J. Sheehy-Skeffington, F. Pratto, K. E. Henkel, R. Foels and A. L. Stewart. 2015. “The nature of social dominance orientation: Theorizing and measuring preferences for intergroup inequality using the new SDO7 scale.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1096: 1003–1028. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000033
Hofstadter, R. 1964. The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf
Imhoff, R. 2015. “Beyond right-wing authoritarianism. conspiracy mentality as an incremental predictor of prejudice.” In The Psychology of Conspiracy, edited by M. Bilewicz, A. Cichocka and W. Soral, 122–141. London: Routledge.
Imhoff, R. and M. Bruder. 2014. “Speaking un-truth to power: Conspiracy mentality as a generalised political attitude.” European Journal of Personality 28: 25–43. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1930
Irwin, H. J. 2009. The Psychology of Paranormal Beliefs: A Researchers Handbook. Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press.
Jolley, D. and K. M. Douglas. 2014. “The social consequences of conspiracism: Exposure to conspiracy theories decreases intentions to engage in politics and to reduce one’s carbon footprints.” British Journal of Psychology, 105, 35–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12018
Krouwel, A., Y. Kutiyski, J-W. van Prooijen, J. Martinsson, E. Markstedt. 2017. “Does extreme political ideology predict conspiracy beliefs, economic evaluations and political trust? evidence from Sweden.” Journal of Social and Political Psychology 5(2): 435–462. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i2.745
Lantian, A., D. Muller, C. Nurra and K. M. Douglas. 2016. “Measuring belief in conspiracy theories: Validation of a French and English single-item scale.” International Review of Social Psychology 291: 1–14. https://doi.org/10.5334/irsp.8
Lewis, J. R. and I. B. Tøllefsen. 2013. “Gender and paganism in census and survey data.” The Pomegranate 151(2): 61–78.
Lewis, J. R., S. E. Currie and M. P. Oman-Reagan. 2016. “The religion of the educated classes revisited: New religions, the non-religious, and educational levels.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 551: 91–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12246
Lindeman, M. and K. Aarnio. 2006. “Paranormal beliefs: Their dimensionality and correlates.” European Journal of Personality 20: 585–602. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.608
Lobato, E., J. Mendoza, V. Sims and M. Chin. 2014. “Examining the relationship between conspiracy theories, paranormal beliefs and pseudoscience acceptance in a university population.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 28: 617–625. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3042
Oliver, J. E. and T. J. Wood. 2014. “Conspiracy theories and the paranoid styles of mass opinion.” American Journal of Political Science 584: 952–966. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12084
Orenstein, A. 2002. “Religion and paranormal belief.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 41: 301–311. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5906.00118
Pratto, F., L. M. Stallworth and J. Sidanius. 1997. “The gender gap: Differences in political attitudes and social dominance orientation.” British Journal of Social Psychology 36(1): 49–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1997.tb01118.x
Robertson, D. G. 2016. UFO’s, Conspiracy Theories, and the New Age: Millennial Conspiracism. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Roeland, J., S. Aupers and D. Houtman. 2012. “Fantasy, conspiracy, and the romantic legacy: max weber and the spirit of contemporary popular culture.” In Handbook of Hyper-Real Religion, edited by A. Possamai, 401–422. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004226944_022
Sidanius, J. and F. Pratto. 1999. Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139175043
Stenner, K. 2005. The Authoritarian Dynamic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614712
Stone, A., M. R. McDermott, A. Abdi, B. Cornwell, Z. Matyas, R. Reed and R. Watt. 2018. “Development and validation of the multi-dimensional questionnaire of scientifically unsubstantiated beliefs.” Personality and Individual Differences 128: 146–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.02.024
Ståhl, T. and J-W. van Prooijen. 2018. “Epistemic rationality: Skepticism against unfounded beliefs requires sufficient cognitive ability and motivation to be rational.” Personality and Individual Differences 122: 155–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.10.026
Swami, V., R. Coles, S. Stieger, J. Pietschnig, A. Furnham, S. Rehim and M. Voracek. 2011. “Conspiracist ideation in Britain and Austria: Evidence of a monological belief system and associations between individual psychological differences and real-world and fictitious conspiracy theories.” British Journal of Psychology 102: 443–463. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.2010.02004.x
Swami, V., M. Voracek, S. Stieger, U. S. Tran and A. Furnham. 2014. „Analytic thinking reduces belief in conspiracy theories.” Cognition 133: 572–585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.08.006
Tobacyk, J. J. 2004. “A revised paranormal beliefs scale.” International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 231: 94–98. https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2004.23.1.94
Tobacyk, J. J. and G. Milford. 1983. “Belief in paranormal phenomena: Assessment instrument development and implications for personality functioning.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 445: 1029–1037. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.5.1029
Uscinski, J. E. and J. M. Parent. 2014. American Conspiracy Theories. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199351800.001.0001
Van der Tempel, J. and J. E. Alcock. 2015. “Relationships between conspiracy mentality, hyperactive agency detection, and schizotypy: Supernatural forces at work?” Personality and Individual Differences 82: 136–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.03.010
Van Prooijen, J-W. 2017. “Why education predicts decreased belief in conspiracy theories.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 31(1): 50–58. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3301
Van Prooijen, J-W., A. P. M. Krouwel and T. V. Pollet. 2015. “Political extremism predicts belief in conspiracy theories.” Social Psychological and Personality Science 6: 570–578. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550614567356
Winiewski, M., W. Soral and M. Bilewicz. 2015. “Conspiracy theories on the map of stereotype content.” In The Psychology of Conspiracy, edited by M. Bilewicz, A. Cichocka and W. Soral, 23–41. London: Routledge.
Wood, M. J. 2016. “Some dare call it conspiracy: Labeling something a conspiracy theory does not reduce belief in it.” Political Psychology 375: 695–705. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12285
Wood, M. J. and K. M. Douglas. In press “Are conspiracy theories a surrogate for God?” In Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion, edited by A. Dyrendal, D. G. Robertson, and E. Asprem, 87–105. Leiden: Brill.
Aho, J. A. 1990. The Politics of Righteousness. Idaho Christian Patriotism. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Altemeyer, R. A. 1981. Right-Wing Authoritarianism. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
Asprem, E. and A. Dyrendal. 2015. “Conspirituality reconsidered: How surprising and how new is the confluence of spirituality and conspiracy theory?” Journal of Contemporary Religion 30(3): 367–382. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2015.1081339
----- In press “Close companions? Esotericism and conspiracy theories.” In Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion, edited by A. Dyrendal, D. G. Robertson and E. Asprem, 207–233. Leiden: Brill.
Aupers, S. 2012. “‘Trust No one’: Modernization, paranoia, and conspiracy culture.” European Journal of Communication 27(1): 22–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323111433566
Bader, C. D., F. C. Mencken and J. O. Baker. 2010. Paranormal America. New York: New York University Press.
Barkun, M. 1994. Religion and the Racist Right. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
----- 2003. A Culture of Conspiracy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Barron, D., K. Morgan, T. Towell, B. Altemeyer and V. Swami. 2014. “Associations between schizotypy and conspiracist ideation.” Personality and Individual Differences 70: 156–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.06.040
Barron, D., A. Furnham, L. Weis, K. D. Morgan, T. Towell and V. Swami. 2018. “The relationship between schizotypal facets and conspiracist beliefs via cognitive processes.” Psychiatry Research 259: 15–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2017.10.001
Baylor University. 2005. The Baylor Religion Survey, Wave 1. Waco, TX: Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion.
Berger, H. A. 2009. “Contemporary paganism by the numbers.” In Handbook of Contemporary Paganism, edited by J. R. Lewis and M. Pizza, 153–170. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004163737.i-650.48
Berger, H. A., E. A. Leach and L. S. Shaffer. 2003. Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Bilewicz, M., A. Cichocka and W. Soral, eds. 2015. The Psychology of Conspiracy. London: Routledge.
Brotherton, R. and C.C. French. 2015. “Intention seekers: Attention seekers and biased attribution of intentionality.” PLoS ONE 10(5): e0124125. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0124125
Brotherton, R., C. C. French and A. Pickering. 2013. “Measuring conspiracy theories: The generic conspiracist beliefs scale.” Frontiers in Psychology 4: 279. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00279
Bruder, M., P. Haffke, N. Neave, N. Nouripanah and R. Imhoff. 2013. “Measuring individual differences in generic beliefs in conspiracy theories across cultures: Conspiracy mentality questionnaire.” Frontiers in Psychology 4: 225. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00225
Butter, M. 2014. Plots, Designs, and Schemes. American Conspiracy Theories from the Puritans to the Present. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110346930
Butter, M. and M. Reinkowski, eds. 2014. Conspiracy Theories in the United States and the Middle East. A Comparative Approach. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110338270
Dagnall, N., K. Drinkwater, A. Parker, A. Denovan and M. Parton. 2015. “Conspiracy theory and cognitive style: A worldview.” Frontiers in Psychology 6: 206. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00206
Darwin, H., N. Neave and J. Holmes. 2011. “Belief in conspiracy theories: The role of paranormal belief, paranoid ideation and schizotypy.” Personality and Individual Difference 50(8): 1289–1293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.02.027
Douglas, K. M., R. M. Sutton, M. J. Callan, R. J. Dawtry and A. J. Harvey. 2016. “Someone is pulling the strings: Hypersensitive agency detection and belief in conspiracy theories.” Thinking and Reasoning 22: 57–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2015.1051586
Dyrendal, A. 2017. “New Age and Norwegian ‘conspirituality’.” In New Age in Norway, edited by I. S. Gilhus, S-E Kraft and J. R. Lewis,159–181. Sheffield: Equinox.
Dyrendal, A., D. G. Robertson and E. Asprem, eds. In press Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion. Leiden: Brill.
Farias, M., G. Claridge and M. Lalljee. 2005. “Personality and cognitive predictors of new age practices and beliefs.” Personality and Individual Differences 39: 979–989. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.04.003
Farias, M. and P. Granqvist. 2006. “The psychology of the New Age.” In Handbook of New Age, edited by D. Kemp and J. R. Lewis, 123–150. Leiden: Brill.
Gardell, M. 2003. Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822384502
Goertzel, T. 1994. “Belief in conspiracy theories.” Political Psychology 154: 731–742. https://doi.org/10.2307/3791630
Goodrick-Clarke, N. 2003. Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. New York: New York University Press.
Gray, M. 2010. Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World. New York: Routledge
Ho, A. K., J. Sidanius, F. Pratto, S. Levin, L. Thomsen, N. Kteily and J. Sheehy-Skeffington. 2012. “Social dominance orientation: Revisiting the structure and function of a variable predicting social and political attitudes.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 385: 583–606. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211432765
Ho, A. K., J. Sidanius, N. Kteily, J. Sheehy-Skeffington, F. Pratto, K. E. Henkel, R. Foels and A. L. Stewart. 2015. “The nature of social dominance orientation: Theorizing and measuring preferences for intergroup inequality using the new SDO7 scale.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1096: 1003–1028. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000033
Hofstadter, R. 1964. The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf
Imhoff, R. 2015. “Beyond right-wing authoritarianism. conspiracy mentality as an incremental predictor of prejudice.” In The Psychology of Conspiracy, edited by M. Bilewicz, A. Cichocka and W. Soral, 122–141. London: Routledge.
Imhoff, R. and M. Bruder. 2014. “Speaking un-truth to power: Conspiracy mentality as a generalised political attitude.” European Journal of Personality 28: 25–43. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1930
Irwin, H. J. 2009. The Psychology of Paranormal Beliefs: A Researchers Handbook. Hertfordshire: University of Hertfordshire Press.
Jolley, D. and K. M. Douglas. 2014. “The social consequences of conspiracism: Exposure to conspiracy theories decreases intentions to engage in politics and to reduce one’s carbon footprints.” British Journal of Psychology, 105, 35–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12018
Krouwel, A., Y. Kutiyski, J-W. van Prooijen, J. Martinsson, E. Markstedt. 2017. “Does extreme political ideology predict conspiracy beliefs, economic evaluations and political trust? evidence from Sweden.” Journal of Social and Political Psychology 5(2): 435–462. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i2.745
Lantian, A., D. Muller, C. Nurra and K. M. Douglas. 2016. “Measuring belief in conspiracy theories: Validation of a French and English single-item scale.” International Review of Social Psychology 291: 1–14. https://doi.org/10.5334/irsp.8
Lewis, J. R. and I. B. Tøllefsen. 2013. “Gender and paganism in census and survey data.” The Pomegranate 151(2): 61–78.
Lewis, J. R., S. E. Currie and M. P. Oman-Reagan. 2016. “The religion of the educated classes revisited: New religions, the non-religious, and educational levels.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 551: 91–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12246
Lindeman, M. and K. Aarnio. 2006. “Paranormal beliefs: Their dimensionality and correlates.” European Journal of Personality 20: 585–602. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.608
Lobato, E., J. Mendoza, V. Sims and M. Chin. 2014. “Examining the relationship between conspiracy theories, paranormal beliefs and pseudoscience acceptance in a university population.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 28: 617–625. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3042
Oliver, J. E. and T. J. Wood. 2014. “Conspiracy theories and the paranoid styles of mass opinion.” American Journal of Political Science 584: 952–966. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12084
Orenstein, A. 2002. “Religion and paranormal belief.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 41: 301–311. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5906.00118
Pratto, F., L. M. Stallworth and J. Sidanius. 1997. “The gender gap: Differences in political attitudes and social dominance orientation.” British Journal of Social Psychology 36(1): 49–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1997.tb01118.x
Robertson, D. G. 2016. UFO’s, Conspiracy Theories, and the New Age: Millennial Conspiracism. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Roeland, J., S. Aupers and D. Houtman. 2012. “Fantasy, conspiracy, and the romantic legacy: max weber and the spirit of contemporary popular culture.” In Handbook of Hyper-Real Religion, edited by A. Possamai, 401–422. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004226944_022
Sidanius, J. and F. Pratto. 1999. Social Dominance: An Intergroup Theory of Social Hierarchy and Oppression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139175043
Stenner, K. 2005. The Authoritarian Dynamic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614712
Stone, A., M. R. McDermott, A. Abdi, B. Cornwell, Z. Matyas, R. Reed and R. Watt. 2018. “Development and validation of the multi-dimensional questionnaire of scientifically unsubstantiated beliefs.” Personality and Individual Differences 128: 146–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.02.024
Ståhl, T. and J-W. van Prooijen. 2018. “Epistemic rationality: Skepticism against unfounded beliefs requires sufficient cognitive ability and motivation to be rational.” Personality and Individual Differences 122: 155–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.10.026
Swami, V., R. Coles, S. Stieger, J. Pietschnig, A. Furnham, S. Rehim and M. Voracek. 2011. “Conspiracist ideation in Britain and Austria: Evidence of a monological belief system and associations between individual psychological differences and real-world and fictitious conspiracy theories.” British Journal of Psychology 102: 443–463. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.2010.02004.x
Swami, V., M. Voracek, S. Stieger, U. S. Tran and A. Furnham. 2014. „Analytic thinking reduces belief in conspiracy theories.” Cognition 133: 572–585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.08.006
Tobacyk, J. J. 2004. “A revised paranormal beliefs scale.” International Journal of Transpersonal Studies 231: 94–98. https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2004.23.1.94
Tobacyk, J. J. and G. Milford. 1983. “Belief in paranormal phenomena: Assessment instrument development and implications for personality functioning.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 445: 1029–1037. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.5.1029
Uscinski, J. E. and J. M. Parent. 2014. American Conspiracy Theories. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199351800.001.0001
Van der Tempel, J. and J. E. Alcock. 2015. “Relationships between conspiracy mentality, hyperactive agency detection, and schizotypy: Supernatural forces at work?” Personality and Individual Differences 82: 136–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.03.010
Van Prooijen, J-W. 2017. “Why education predicts decreased belief in conspiracy theories.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 31(1): 50–58. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3301
Van Prooijen, J-W., A. P. M. Krouwel and T. V. Pollet. 2015. “Political extremism predicts belief in conspiracy theories.” Social Psychological and Personality Science 6: 570–578. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550614567356
Winiewski, M., W. Soral and M. Bilewicz. 2015. “Conspiracy theories on the map of stereotype content.” In The Psychology of Conspiracy, edited by M. Bilewicz, A. Cichocka and W. Soral, 23–41. London: Routledge.
Wood, M. J. 2016. “Some dare call it conspiracy: Labeling something a conspiracy theory does not reduce belief in it.” Political Psychology 375: 695–705. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12285
Wood, M. J. and K. M. Douglas. In press “Are conspiracy theories a surrogate for God?” In Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion, edited by A. Dyrendal, D. G. Robertson, and E. Asprem, 87–105. Leiden: Brill.
Published
2018-07-27
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Section
Articles
How to Cite
Dyrendal, A., Kennair, L., & Lewis, J. (2018). The Role of Conspiracy Mentality and Paranormal Beliefs in Predicting Conspiracy Beliefs Among Neopagans. International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 8(1), 73-97. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.36716
