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Chapter 4 - Anxiety, Psychological Motivations, and Conspiracy Beliefs
Dolores Albarracin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Julia Albarracin, Western Illinois University, Man-pui Sally Chan, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania
Book:

Creating Conspiracy Beliefs

Published online:

18 November 2021

Print publication:

25 November 2021, pp 55-91
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Summary

In this chapter, we review the psychology of fear and anxiety. Additionally, we examine earlier literatures that shed light on the belief-defense motivation, the belief accuracy motivation, and the social integration motivation. In particular, we focus on personality traits and cognitive styles connected to these conscpiracy forming motives as established through prior literatures and our own experiments' data.

Chapter 1 - Introduction
Dolores Albarracin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Julia Albarracin, Western Illinois University, Man-pui Sally Chan, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania
Book:

Creating Conspiracy Beliefs

Published online:

18 November 2021

Print publication:

25 November 2021, pp 1-10
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Summary

In this intriductory chapter, we outline the overarching psychological and sociopolitical conspiracy belief framework. This framework is elaborated through a figure and principles that integrate important prior research contributions and advance new ones.

How Our Thoughts Are Shaped
Dolores Albarracin, Julia Albarracin, Man-pui Sally Chan, Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Published online:

18 November 2021

Print publication:

25 November 2021
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Conspiracy theories spread more widely and faster than ever before. Fear and uncertainty prompt people to believe false narratives of danger and hidden plots, but are not sufficient without considering the role and ideological bias of the media. This timely book focuses on making sense of how and why some people respond to their fear of a threat by creating or believing conspiracy stories. It integrates insights from psychology, political science, communication, and information sciences to provide a complete overview and theory of how conspiracy beliefs manifest. Through this multi-disciplinary perspective, rigoros research develops and tests a practical, simple way to frame and understand conspiracy theories. The book supplies unprecedented amounts of new data from six empirical studies and unpicks the complexity of the process that leads to the empowerment of conspiracy beliefs.