Creating Conspiracy Beliefs
Creating Conspiracy Beliefs
Julia Albarracin, Western Illinois University
Man-pui Sally Chan, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania
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.
- Explains why people accept conspiracy beliefs and what role the media plays
- Examines conspiracy theories that are prevalent in the US and around the world
- Provides full data from six original case studies
Reviews & endorsements
‘A deep social psychological analysis of why so many Americans subscribe to false conspiratorial beliefs is long overdue. Finally, it has arrived! In several landmark studies, Dolores AlbarracÃn and her colleagues find that personal anxiety and exposure to conservative media, which exacerbates feelings of anxiety, drive paranoid thinking about matters of politics and public health. The question now is how to calm everyone down and re-establish some semblance of reality-based consensus in our society before it is too late.’ John T. Jost, New York University, USA
‘Creating Conspiracy Beliefs: How Our Thoughts are Shaped is a brilliant monograph reporting an extensive research program that probed the origins of conspiracy beliefs. The authors introduce a social psychological theory that grounds such beliefs in social influence and psychological motivations that are fueled by anxiety and repetitious communicative content. Evidence for the importance of these processes emerges from well-designed surveys, experiments, and analyses of social media data. The result is a wide-ranging analysis that illuminates the prevalence of conspiracy beliefs.’ Alice H. Eagly, Northwestern University, USA
Product details
November 2021Hardback
9781108845786
200 pages
235 × 159 × 20 mm
0.62kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Preface
- 1. Introduction
- 2. A framework for understanding how conspiracy beliefs are created
- 3. The consequences of conspiracy beliefs
- 4. Anxiety, psychological motivations, and conspiracy beliefs
- 5. Socio-political factors and conspiracy beliefs
- 6. The relation between media and anxiety
- 7. The influence of norms and social networks on conspiracy beliefs
- 8. Influences of media and anxiety in a psychological and sociopolitical context
- 9. Conclusions
- Appendix.
