Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: van Prooijen JW
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5900972 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
van Prooijen Jan-Willem JW Douglas Karen M KM De Inocencio Clara C
European journal of social psychology 20170925 3
A common assumption is that belief in conspiracy theories and supernatural phenomena are grounded in illusory pattern perception. In the present research we systematically tested this assumption. Study 1 revealed that such irrational beliefs are related to perceiving patterns in randomly generated coin toss outcomes. In Study 2, pattern search instructions exerted an indirect effect on irrational beliefs through pattern perception. Study 3 revealed that perceiving patterns in chaotic but not in ...[more]