When alienated from society, conspiracy theory belief gives meaning to life.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Conspiracy theory belief - explaining the ultimate causes of social and political events with claims of secret conspiracies - is assumed to arise from a desire to make sense of uncertainty, especially in times of crisis. However, there is no compelling evidence that conspiracy theory belief actually fulfils this function, particularly in terms of evaluating one's life as meaningful. We posit that the adoption of conspiracy theory belief can be explained as a fluid compensation when a more proximal source of meaning, a sense of belonging to society, is threatened. Thus, a positive association between conspiracy theory belief and meaningfulness should emerge when people feel alienated from society. We therefore tested the hypotheses that alienation from society corr

SUBMITTER: Schnell T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11324984 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature