Different Strokes for Different Folks: Article Review of The Psychological and Political Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

Conspiracy beliefs are more common than you might expect - about 50% of Americans hold one or more of them. Though most of these beliefs have a political component, they are not always tied to one’s politics. It isn’t clear, for example, which side of the political spectrum will endorse the belief that the Egyptian pyramids were constructed by extraterrestrial beings. This is why belief in this particular conspiracy theory seems to appear heterogeneously.

Some conspiracy theories, such as QAnon, are attractive to a very specific group of people, while others have no clear ideological component, as seen in flat earthers or moon landing skeptics. People can even believe the same conspiracy theory for different reasons. Conspiracists on the left are against vaccines because they supposedly cause autism. Conspiracists on the right are against vaccines because they represent a form of governmental control.

A study published last year by Joe Uscinski and others explores the differential nature of conspiracy theories and why they appeal to certain people. In their study, they used a wide array of 39 conspiracy theories. Their selection addressed each of the five types of conspiracy beliefs identified by Robert Brotherton and colleagues (i.e., 1. government malfeasance, 2. extraterrestrial cover-up, 3. malevolent global conspiracies, 4. personal well-being, and 5. control of information).

They then measured how the belief in these conspiracy theories correlates with 15 psychological and political characteristics. To name a few, they looked at:

• Manicheanism (e.g., “Politics is a struggle between good and evil”);

• Machiavellianism (e.g., “I tend to manipulate others to get my way”);

• Populism (e.g., “Politicians and the established elite often betray the people”);

• Narcissism (e.g., “I tend to want others to pay attention to me”);

• Psychopathy (e.g., “I tend to be callous or insensitive”); and

• Conspiratorial thinking (e.g., “Much of our lives are being controlled by plots hatched in secret places”).

In total, their analysis captured 585 relationships. Of these relationships, they found that although conspiracy thinking was the strongest predictor of specific conspiracy beliefs, the strongest predictor across a broad variety of conspiracy beliefs was seen in psychological traits such as the dark triad and political ideologies such as Manicheanism and populism.

In other words, most conspiracy beliefs are linked to an individual's ideology and/or psychological traits. However, the driving factor behind each of these beliefs is typically a conspiratorial mindset.

What does this mean for the future of conspiracy theory research? Well, the most general takeaway is that not all conspiracy theories are created equal. Any given conspiracy theory will be more or less attractive to any particular individual because of their political identity and personality profile. Therefore, we should expect even the most rabid conspiracy theorist to dismiss some conspiracy theories as preposterous. As they say, different strokes for different folks.

If researchers are looking for generalizable findings, they ought to select from a variety of conspiracy theories. To prevent participants from taking the longest survey ever by responding to every conspiracy theory under the sun, researchers can apply the insights from this paper to select a few that cater to different aspects of conspiracy psychology.

Alternatively, considering that conspiracy thinking underlies all conspiracy beliefs, we could further investigate this underlying construct, rather than specific beliefs if we want to make sweeping claims about conspiracy theorists.

This study also has implications for how we combat conspiracy theories and misinformation in general. For example, not all conspiracy theories are driven by ideology. It could be that people are drawn to radical narratives because they score high on dark triad personality traits, or because they support political violence, and conspiracies give them the green light to display these tendencies.

Common methods such as debunking and prebunking are unlikely to work for such individuals. You can’t always stop someone from believing something that they desperately want to believe. Instead, we should know why certain people find certain narratives alluring and adapt our approach accordingly. By recognizing how and why people gravitate toward conspiracy beliefs, we can better safeguard against them in the future, allowing us to reach those who we once thought unreachable.

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