Conspiracy Beliefs and Consumption: The Role of Scientific Literacy

Abstract

Conspiracy theories pose risks to consumers, businesses, and society. The present research investigates the role of scientific literacy in a variety of conspiracy beliefs with implications for consumer well-being and sustainability (e.g., regarding COVID-19, GMOs and climate change). In contrast to the mixed effects of education in prior work, we find that scientific literacy undermines conspiracy beliefs and, in turn, conspiracy-related behaviors. This finding is explained by people’s ability to use two dimensions of scientific literacy—scientific knowledge and reasoning—to accurately assess conspiracy evidence. For robustness, we assess scientific literacy through both measurement and manipulation (ie, interventions), identify two moderators (evidence strength and narration) that attenuate the effect, and further validate our theorizing using national and international datasets (regarding COVID-19 vaccination and google search, respectively). We discuss the implications of our findings for consumers, companies, nonprofit organizations, and governments.