Dialogicality and Conspiracy Theory: The Coexistence of Conspiracist and Non-Conspiracist Beliefs

IF 2.8 2区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

European Journal of Social Psychology Pub Date : 2025-01-22 DOI:10.1002/ejsp.3120

Matthew S. Hall, Bradley Franks, Martin W. Bauer

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study investigates how people who believe in conspiracy theory (CT) hold those beliefs. It considers whether believing a conspiracist explanation of an issue or event permits or precludes also believing a non-conspiracist explanation—that is, the degree to which endorsing CTs can be dialogical. Dialogicality involves the coexistence of conspiracist and non-conspiracist beliefs in advancing claims and contrasts with the view that all conspiracist belief endorsement is monological or ‘closed’ from other explanations. Thematic analysis of 39 semi-structured interviews revealed five modalities of belief coexistence: cognitive dissonance between beliefs, analogical beliefs, target-dependent beliefs, synthetic beliefs, and integrative beliefs. This spanned beliefs about the self, ingroup, outgroup, reality, action and the future, on topics concerning science, religion, and politics and society. These findings challenge the view that all CTs are monological belief systems: CT believers recruit both conspiracist and non-conspiracist explanations in building their worldview. Several hypotheses for further research emerge from this challenge to the basic assumption of much research on CTs.

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本研究调查了相信阴谋论（CT）的人是如何坚持这些信念的。它考虑了相信阴谋论对某一问题或事件的解释是否允许或排除同时相信非阴谋论的解释--也就是说，赞同 CT 的对话性程度。对话性涉及阴谋论和非阴谋论信念在提出主张时的共存，并与所有阴谋论信念认可都是单一的或与其他解释 "封闭 "的观点形成对比。对 39 个半结构式访谈进行的主题分析表明了信念共存的五种模式：信念之间的认知失调、类比信念、目标依赖信念、合成信念和整合信念。这些信念涉及自我、内群、外群、现实、行动和未来，涉及科学、宗教、政治和社会等主题。这些发现对所有 CT 都是单一信仰体系的观点提出了质疑：CT信仰者在建立自己的世界观时同时采用了阴谋论和非阴谋论的解释。对许多 CT 研究的基本假设提出的这一挑战，为进一步研究提出了几个假设。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

European Journal of Social Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL-

CiteScore

6.10

自引率

7.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： Topics covered include, among others, intergroup relations, group processes, social cognition, attitudes, social influence and persuasion, self and identity, verbal and nonverbal communication, language and thought, affect and emotion, embodied and situated cognition and individual differences of social-psychological relevance. Together with original research articles, the European Journal of Social Psychology"s innovative and inclusive style is reflected in the variety of articles published: Research Article: Original articles that provide a significant contribution to the understanding of social phenomena, up to a maximum of 12,000 words in length.