Conspiracy theories are abundant in social and political discourse, with serious
consequences for individuals, groups, and societies. However, psychological scientists have …

Scholarly efforts to understand conspiracy theories have grown significantly in recent years,
and there is now a broad and interdisciplinary literature. In reviewing this body of work, we …

The study of conspiracy theories has undergone a drastic transformation in the last decade.
While early scholarly treatments relied on historical cases and cultural analyses, more …

Despite regular reference to conspiracy theories as a “belief system,” few studies have
attempted to explore the structure and organization of conspiracy beliefs beyond an …

Although conspiracy theories have arguably always been an important feature of social life,
they have only attracted the attention of social psychologists in recent years. The last …

In psychological research, conspiracy theories are often defined as explanations of events
involving the hidden action of a malevolent group. Such a definition raises a false negative …

Belief in conspiracy theories—such as that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job or
that the pharmaceutical industry deliberately spreads diseases—is a widespread and …

In this introduction to the EJSP Special Issue on conspiracy theories as a social
psychological phenomenon, we describe how this emerging research domain has …

Understanding the individual-level characteristics associated with conspiracy theory beliefs
is vital to addressing and combatting those beliefs. While researchers have identified …

This chapter outlines what is known to date, and reviews the psychological research on the
positive and negative consequences of conspiracy theories. It argues that future research …