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The dark side of meaning-making: How social exclusion leads to superstitious thinking
Abstract
This paper tests a meaning-making model of conspiratorial thinking by considering how one's search for meaning mediates between social exclusion and the endorsement of conspiratorial (Study 1) and superstitious (Study 2) beliefs. In Study 1, participants first wrote about a self-selected personal event that involved a social interaction, they then indicated how socially excluded they felt after the event, and, finally, they rated their endorsement of three well-known conspiracy theories. In Study 2, participants were randomly assigned to a Social Inclusion, a Social Exclusion, or a Control condition, after which they indicated the association between improbable events in three scenarios. In addition, both studiesmechanistically tested the relation between social exclusion and conspiratorial/superstitious thinking by measuring the participants' tendency to search for meaning. Both Study 1 (correlational) and Study 2 (experimental) offer support for the hypothesis that social exclusion is associated with superstitious/conspiratorial beliefs. One's search for meaning, correlational analyses revealed, mediated this relation.We discuss the implication of the findings for community-wide belief dynamics and we propose that social inclusion could be used to diminish the dissemination of superstitious beliefs and conspiracy theories.
... Conspiracy theory belief might have positive results for the individuals, helping them satisfy their needs: (1) epistemic -to avoid uncertainty, satisfy curiosity and assign meaning (Van Prooijen & Douglas, 2017), and that is the reason why people with tendencies for conspiracy thinking seek patterns even where there are none (Van Prooijen & Douglas, 2018); (2) existential -to rebuild a sense of control, safety and power (Abalakina-Paap et al., 1999;Grzesiak-Feldman, 2013); and (3) social -to sustain self-image and the image of one's group. Conspiracy thinking links to feeling special (Lantian et al., 2017), is connected to feeling a need to belong (Graeupner & Coman, 2017) or a sense that one's group is not valued enough (Cichocka et al., 2016) or even faces a threat (Jolley et al., 2018). Similarly, people endorsing Binding values tend to tolerate ambiguity less (Federico et al., 2016), given their preference for status quo and tradition (Boehm, 2012). ...
... Las creencias en teorías de la conspiración podrían facilitar resultados positivos a las personas, ayudándoles a satisfacer sus necesidades: (1) epistémicas, para evitar la incertidumbre, satisfacer la curiosidad y asignar significado (Van Prooijen & Douglas, 2017) y por eso las personas con tendencias a un pensamiento conspiranoico buscan patrones incluso donde no los hay (Van Prooijen & Douglas, 2018); (2) existencial, para reconstruir un sentimiento de control, seguridad y poder (Abalakina-Paap et al., 1999;Grzesiak-Feldman, 2013); y (3) social, para mantener la autoimagen y la imagen del endogrupo. El pensamiento conspiranoico está vinculado a un sentimiento de ser especial (Lantian et al., 2017), vinculado a su vez con la necesidad de pertenencia (Graeupner & Coman, 2017) o la sensación de que no se valora lo suficiente el endogrupo (Cichocka et al., 2016) o incluso de tener que afrontar una amenaza (Jolley et al., 2018). Del mismo modo, las personas que defienden valores aglutinantes tienden a tolerar peor la ambigüedad (Federico et al., 2016), dada su preferencia por el statu quo y la tradición (Boehm, 2012). ...
Building on the Moral Foundations Theory and findings regarding the linkage of values, convictions, and beliefs, the aim of the study was to compare people displaying various constellations of moral foundations regarding their tolerance of ambiguity, fear of COVID-19 (FCV), endorsement of COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and the extent to which they believed in the effectiveness of five COVID-19 preventive measures. This study was self-report and questionnaire-based (N = 212), performed on the general public (age from 18 to 65). Moral foundations clustered into four groups: Individualizing, Binding, Anti-Individualizing, and Generally Moral. The endorsement of Individualizing values (Harm/Care, Fairness/Reciprocity) was linked to higher FCV and higher rating of the effectiveness of COVID-19 preventive measures. Endorsing Binding values (Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity) was related to lower tolerance of ambiguity and displaying higher conspiracy beliefs. Findings are discussed in the light of their meaning of values for socially responsible behavior during a pandemic.
... 24 In addition, a 2016 survey in northern Germany found that 68% of women and just 38% of males believe in superstitions. 25 The results showed that patients with secondary scientific education and below had the highest levels of superstitious beliefs. People with adequate education are less prone to believe in accidental magical abilities. ...
... These ideas affect how people respond to treatments, health, and psychological needs. 25 ...
Background:
For disease management, numerous drugs are prescribed. However, long-term treatment adherence is still unsatisfactory. Culture influences beliefs regarding medication, particularly irrational ideas that affect treatment adherence. The Middle East, notably Jordan, is affected by a lack of awareness of these attitudes with regard to treatment adherence.
Objective:
Investigating the adherence level among patients with chronic diseases in southern Jordan. To determine whether certain demographic traits, different disease factors, and superstitions have any impact on treatment adherence.
Patients and methods:
A cross-sectional study that assessed treatment adherence and superstitious thinking-related health issues were conducted among chronic disease patients who had reviewed intrinsic medicine clinics at the Karak governmental hospital.
Results:
For 314 participants, treatment adherence was categorized into three levels low-adherent patients made up 27.7% highly-adherent patients made up 49.4%, and the remaining adhered at a medium level. Treatment non-adherence was more common in the elderly and female, according to the chi-square analysis. Additionally, the classification of superstitious beliefs into three categories revealed that different percentages of the study population held low superstitious beliefs 21%, medium superstitions 54.1% and high superstitions 24.8% beliefs. The chi-square analysis revealed that the elderly, female, and low-educated patient groups were the highest in superstitious thinking. Multiple regression analysis revealed that educational level and superstitious thinking explained 0.223 of the treatment adherence variances. Treatment adherence is positively influenced by educational level β (0.244) value, but superstitious thinking is negatively influenced by β (-0.302) value.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, about half of the participants highly adhered. The results of the multiple-regression analysis indicate that superstition and education were two variables that impacted treatment adherence in this study. While superstitious beliefs lead to lower treatment adherence, education has the opposite effect. Finally, it is recommended to promote patient education to reduce superstitious beliefs, improve medication adherence.
... 17 Graeupner et al. findings revealed that young adults have firmer superstitious beliefs than older adults. 18 Moreover, researchers concluded that young adults show superstitious beliefs, which may not persist with the period of ageing; their life span experiences play a vital role in making such kinds of beliefs. Following social exclusion, people endorse more superstitious beliefs, a relationship fully media-ted by the search for meaning. ...
... Following social exclusion, people endorse more superstitious beliefs, a relationship fully media-ted by the search for meaning. 13,18 ...
Objective: To determine the relationship between superstitious beliefs and self-efficacy among participants and explore selfefficacy, age, education, gender and socioeconomic status as the significant predictors of superstitious beliefs among participants. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Garrison University, Lahore Pakistan, from May to Nov 2020. Methodology: Total number of 200 study participants, age ranged of 18 to 50 years, were selected. The questionnaires; (1) a measure to superstitions scale and (2) general self-efficacy scale, were used to analyze the relationship between superstitious beliefs and self-efficacy with the role of ageing, education and socioeconomic status among participants. Result: Out of 200 male and female participants, study results reveal that superstitions belief and self-efficacy were correlated positively in a very small to moderate direction. Moreover, the study result showed that age (β=0.10), gender (β=0.05), socioeconomic status (β=0.91), and self-efficacy (β=0.24) were positively predicting superstitious beliefs while education (β=- 0.09) was negatively predicting the superstitious beliefs among participants. Conclusion: The results of the study showed the positive correlation between superstitious beliefs and self-efficacy among participants. Furthermore, the study concluded that participants' age, gender, socioeconomic status and self-efficacy were positive predictors of superstitious belief.
... Some studies showed that experiencing loss of control and threats to one's identity is related to conspiracy beliefs (e.g. Graeupner & Coman, 2017; van Prooijen & Acker, 2015;Whitson & Galinsky, 2008). ...
... Although we did not directly integrate minority status in our analyses, we believe our models are still informative in these regards. Minority status is associated with conspiracy beliefs mainly due to experiences of discrimination (Graeupner & Coman, 2017;van Prooijen et al., 2018): it is not causal in and of itself but because it is a proxy for structural phenomena that lead to inequality of treatment. To the extent that we accounted for an exhaustive number of variables likely to be affected by structural discrimination (e.g. ...
Conspiracy Beliefs (CB) are a key vector of violent extremism, radicalism and unconventional political events. So far, social-psychological research has extensively documented how cognitive, emotional and intergroup factors can promote CB. Evidence also suggests that adherence to CB moves along social class lines: low-income and low-education are among the most robust predictors of CB. Yet, the potential role of precarity-the subjective experience of permanent insecurity stemming from objective material strain-in shaping CB remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we propose for the first time a socio-functional model of CB. We test the hypothesis that precarity could foster increased CB because it undermines trust in government and the broader political 'elites'. Data from the World Value Survey (n = 21,650; Study 1, electoral CB) and from representative samples from polls conducted in France (n = 1760, Study 2a, conspiracy mentality) and Italy (n = 2196, Study 2b, COVID-19 CB), corroborate a mediation model whereby precarity is directly and indirectly associated with lower trust in authorities and higher CB. In addition, these links are robust to adjustment on income, self-reported SES and education. Considering precarity allows for a truly social-psychological understanding of CB as the by-product of structural issues (e.g. growing inequalities). Results from our socio-functional model suggest that implementing solutions at the socioeconomic level could prove efficient in fighting CB.
... learning) goals (Hamerman & Morewedge, 2015), possessing a strong desire for control (Hamerman & Johar, 2013), and having high anxiety levels (Lang et al., 2015) could predict one's superstitious tendencies. A recent study has further demonstrated that people are more likely to endorse superstitious beliefs after recalling a past ostracism-related experience (Graeupner & Coman, 2017). However, knowledge about the psychological mechanism underlying the link between ostracism and superstitious tendencies is still largely unknown, and the dispositional factors that increase people's superstitious tendencies following ostracism have yet to be discovered. ...
... Previous findings have shown that people who experience ostracism report lower basic needs satisfaction, have more negative emotions, and possess higher aggressive inclinations (Chow et al., 2008;Hartgerink et al., 2015;Poon & Chen, 2014;Poon & Wong, 2019). Ostracized people are also more likely to endorse conspiracy theories (Graeupner & Coman, 2017;. Extending beyond these past findings, this research illustrates a newly discovered link between ostracism and superstitious tendencies and introduces another perspective to the possible behavioural responses caused by ostracism. ...
Whether and how interpersonal experiences predispose people to show superstitious tendencies have been largely unexamined by past studies. By adopting a multimethod approach, three studies tested (a) whether ostracism increases superstitious tendencies through thwarted perceived control, (b) whether the dispositional need for closure moderates the effect of ostracism on superstitious tendencies and (c) whether restoring ostracized people's thwarted control weakens their superstitious tendencies. The results revealed that ostracized participants had higher superstitious tendencies than nonostracized participants did (Studies 1-3). Moreover, thwarted control mediated the effect of ostracism on superstitious tendencies (Study 2). In addition, the dispositional need for closure moderated the effect of ostracism on superstitious tendencies, such that the effect was stronger among participants with a high need for closure (Studies 1-2). Finally, restoring ostracized participants' perceived control weakened the effect of ostracism on superstitious tendencies (Study 3). Altogether, these findings feature the essential role of thwarted perceived control in understanding the link between ostracism and superstitious tendencies and the implication of control restoration in weakening the link. They also highlight the importance of dispositional characteristics in moderating people's responses to superstitions following ostracism and related forms of interpersonal maltreatment.
... Similarly, the role of existential motives is supported by research showing that people are more likely to turn to CTs when they experience general or existential anxiety Liekefett et al., 2021;Scrima et al., 2022) or powerlessness (see van Mulukom et al., 2022). Finally, the role of social motives in explaining CTs was supported by studies that showed greater adherence to CTs among people who experience ostracism (Graeupner & Coman, 2017;Poon et al., 2020), collectivist values (Adam-Troian et al., 2021) defensive ingroup identity or collective narcissism (Bertin et al., 2022;Golec de Zavala et al., 2022), or who hold intergroup prejudice (Imhoff & Bruder, 2014;Nera et al., 2021). ...
Research over the past decade has shown that endorsement of conspiracy theories (CTs) is shaped by motivated cognition processes. Accordingly, CTs are theorized to stem from compensatory processes, as individuals attempt to cope with existential threats (i.e., uncertainty, loss of control). Based on the meaning maintenance model, we investigated whether this compensatory effect could follow from epistemic threats in domains unrelated to CTs in the form of uncanniness. Feelings of uncanniness were experimentally manipulated through exposure to absurdist art and literature in a set of five studies, followed by a mini meta-analysis (Ntotal = 1,041). We conducted a final, preregistered sixth study (N = 266) manipulating uncanniness through autobiographical recall. No robust evidence for a compensatory effect was found. We discussed methodological and conceptual limitations of the meaning maintenance model, as well as boundary conditions under which conspiracy theories could have a compensatory function to deal with threats.
... Similarly, the role of existential motives is supported by research showing that people are more likely to turn to CTs when they experience general or existential anxiety Liekefett et al., 2021;Scrima et al., 2022) or powerlessness (see van Mulukom et al., 2022). Finally, the role of social motives in explaining CTs was supported by studies that showed greater adherence to CTs among people who experience ostracism (Graeupner & Coman, 2017;Poon et al., 2020), collectivist values (Adam-Troian et al., 2021) defensive ingroup identity or collective narcissism (Bertin et al., 2022;Golec de Zavala et al., 2022), or who hold intergroup prejudice (Imhoff & Bruder, 2014;Nera et al., 2021). ...
Research over the past decade has shown that endorsement of conspiracy theories (CTs) are shaped by motivated cognition processes. Accordingly, CTs are theorized to stem from compensatory processes, as individuals attempt to cope with existential threats (i.e., uncertainty, loss of control). Based on the Meaning Maintenance Model, we investigated whether this compensatory effect could follow from epistemic threats in domains unrelated to CTs in the form of uncanniness. Feelings of uncanniness were experimentally manipulated through exposure to absurdist art and literature in a set of 5 studies, followed by a mini meta-analysis (Ntotal = 1,041). We conducted a final, pre-registered sixth study (N = 266) manipulating uncanniness through autobiographical recall. Results suggest that a compensatory effect occurs only among participants from a general population (i.e., non-students) and not among students. We discussed methodological limitations, conceptual limitations of the Meaning Maintenance Model, as well as boundary conditions under which conspiracy theories could have a compensatory function to deal with threats.
... In a study conducted in India, 60% of the patients believed in luck and superstition with regard to illnesses [59]. Superstitions also reported in close to 40% men and 70% women in Northern Germany [60]. In Africa, 70% of people turn to indigenous treatments such as charms and witchery to treat their illness [61]. ...
To cure any disease, proper use of medicine or taking medicine in the correct order is required. Even patients from developed countries struggle to maintain their drug compliance. There is an odd parallel between underdeveloped, emerging nations and the so-called developed world in the West when it comes to improper medicine use. The understanding and perception of the disease is the most important factor influencing whether patients stick to their treatment plan.
... Loneliness has been suggested to enhance vigilance for social threat and therefore, it is possible that loneliness intensifies psychotic symptoms, specifically paranoid delusions (Bangee et al., 2014;Cacioppo et al., 2006). Others showed that social exclusion and isolation can lead to the occurrence of psychotic experiences, and paranoid delusions in particular (Graeupner and Coman, 2017;Selten and Cantor-Graae, 2005). This is supported by experimental research in non-clinical samples, suggesting that social exclusion drives paranoia (Freeman et al., 2002;. ...
Background:
The role of loneliness and social exclusion in the development of paranoia is largely unexplored. Negative affect may mediate potential associations between these factors. We investigated the temporal relationships of daily-life loneliness, felt social exclusion, negative affect, and paranoia across the psychosis continuum.
Method:
Seventy-five participants, including 29 individuals with a diagnosis of non-affective psychosis, 20 first-degree relatives, and 26 controls used an Experience Sampling Method (ESM) app to capture the fluctuations in loneliness, feelings of social exclusion, paranoia, and negative affect across a 1-week period. Data were analysed with multilevel regression analyses.
Results:
In all groups, loneliness and feelings of social exclusion were independent predictors of paranoia over time (b = 0.05, p < .001 and b = 0.04, p < .05, respectively). Negative affect predicted paranoia (b = 0.17, p < .001) and partially mediated the associations between loneliness, social exclusion, and paranoia. It also predicted loneliness (b = 0.15, p < .0001), but not social exclusion (b = 0.04, p = .21) over time. Paranoia predicted social exclusion over time, with more pronounced effects in controls (b = 0.43) than patients (b = 0.19; relatives: b = 0.17); but not loneliness (b = 0.08, p = .16).
Conclusion:
Paranoia and negative affect worsen in all groups following feelings of loneliness and social exclusion. This highlights the importance of a sense of belonging and being included for mental well-being. Loneliness, feeling socially excluded, and negative affect were independent predictors of paranoid thinking, suggesting they represent useful targets in its treatment.
... Superstitions also reported in close to 40% men and 70% women in Northern Germany [60]. In Africa, 70% of people turn to indigenous treatments such as charms and witchery to treat their illness [61]. ...
Proper use of medicine or taking medicine in correct order is essential to cure any disease. Even patients from developed nations have trouble staying on top of their drug compliance. When it comes to improper medicine use, there is an odd parallel between underdeveloped, emerging nations and the so-called developed world in the West. The key factor influencing whether patients stick to their treatment plan is their understanding and perception of the disease.
... In an Indian study, 60% of the participants thought that illnesses were the result of luck or superstition [34]. In Northern Germany, superstitions were also reported in nearly 40% of men and 70% of women [35]. 70% of people in Africa use folk remedies like charms and witchcraft to treat their illnesses [36]. ...
People must have particular personality traits and social resources, also known as health literacy, in order to access, comprehend, and use information to make decisions about their health. Patients' ability to engage in complex disease management and self-care is strongly related to their level of health literacy. It can help us stay healthy by preventing illness and effectively managing existing illnesses. People with low health literacy (LHL) may find it difficult to manage their condition and prevent illness, which may lead to increased use of healthcare services. Furthermore, LHL is associated with increased hospitalizations, increased use of emergency care, decreased use of preventative services, and a worsened ability to understand labels and health messages, a worsened state of health, higher mortality, and more expensive medical care.
... 60 In Africa, 70% of people turn to indigenous treatments such as charms and witchery to treat their illness. 61 Surprisingly, more than 40% of Americans be-lieve in spiritual treatments and researchers found that 73% of addiction treatment programs in the USA include a spirituality-based element. 62,63 Phobia was the cause of insulin refusal among 60% diabetic patients, despite physician recommendations -found in a study conducted in South Iran. ...
Introduction and aim. To cure any disease, proper use of medicine or taking medicine in the correct order is required. Even patients from developed countries struggle to maintain their drug compliance. There is an odd parallel between underdeveloped , emerging nations and the so-called developed world in the West when it comes to improper medicine use. The understanding and perception of the disease is the most important factor influencing whether patients stick to their treatment plan. Material and methods. Prioritized databases for public health topics included PubMed, ALTAVISTA, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Registers. Along with other online sources, journals from Elsevier, Springer, Willey Online Library, and Wolters Kluwer were thoroughly searched. Analysis of the literature. There is a thorough discussion of medication non-adherence issues and a few adherence-improving methods. Conclusion. Adherence to treatment guidelines is essential in the treatment of any disease.
... In a study conducted in India, 60% of the patients believed in luck and superstition with regard to illnesses [59]. Superstitions also reported in close to 40% men and 70% women in Northern Germany [60]. In Africa, 70% of people turn to indigenous treatments such as charms and witchery to treat their illness [61]. ...
The indices of patients' health outcomes have historically included recurrence of symptoms, number of emergency visits, hospitalization and re-admission rates, morbidity, and mortality. Even patients from developed nations have trouble staying on top of their drug compliance. When it comes to improper medicine use, there is an odd parallel between underdeveloped, emerging nations and the so-called developed world in the West. The key factor influencing whether patients stick to their treatment plan is their understanding and perception of the disease. Medication adherence was already a difficult and complex health behavior prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruptions it brought. The promptness of disease diagnosis and management, the cost of treatment, the availability of health insurance, and medication adherence are all factors that providers, who play a significant role in the healthcare system, can affect. Beyond the availability and accessibility of healthcare, the ability of patients to follow doctors' treatment advice greatly contributes to patient outcomes. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of medication non-adherence, which has led to worsened health conditions, higher healthcare costs, and higher healthcare spending. Care providers in clinic and pharmacy settings can set up routines to support adherence to medication and educate and encourage patients about services like distance-accessible technologies and online ordering of medications.
... In an Indian study, 60% of the participants thought that illnesses were the result of luck or superstition (Banerjee and Varma, 2013). In Northern Germany, superstitions were also reported in nearly 40% of men and 70% of women (Graeupner and Coman, 2017). 70% of people in Africa use folk remedies such as charms and witchcraft to treat their illnesses (Puckree et al., 2002). ...
... In an Indian study, 60% of the participants thought that illnesses were the result of luck or superstition (Banerjee, 2013). In Northern Germany, superstitions were also reported in nearly 40% of men and 70% of women (Graeupner D, 2017). 70% of people in Africa use folk remedies like charms and witchcraft to treat their illnesses (Puckree, 2022). ...
People must have particular personality traits and social resources, also known as health literacy, in order to access, comprehend, and use information to make decisions about their health. Patients' ability to engage in complex disease management and self-care is strongly related to their level of health literacy. It can help us stay healthy by preventing illness and effectively managing existing illnesses. People with low health literacy (LHL) may find it difficult to manage their condition and prevent illness, which may lead to increased use of healthcare services. Furthermore, LHL is associated with increased hospitalizations, increased use of emergency care, decreased use of preventative services, and a worsened ability to understand labels and health messages, a worsened state of health, higher mortality, and more expensive medical care.
... As a result, the CTs has been related with underlying psychopathological traits, as schizotypy, which make a person more likely to develop erroneous beliefs (e.g., Georgiou, et al., 2019;Hart & Graether, 2018). Also has been related to people with low educational level (Douglas et al., 2016;Sallam et al., 2021); female gender (Sallam et al., 2021); that have high levels of anxiety or worry (Grzesiak-Feldman, 2013); lower monthly income (Sallam et a., 2021); that use social media sources of information (Earnshaw et al., 2020;Wilson & Wiysonge, 2020); that feel they have no power (Abalakina-Paap et al., 1999); that need to feel unique compared to others (Lantian et al., 2017); that feel the need to belong (Graeupner & Coman, 2017), or that feel that their group is underestimated (Cichocka et al., 2016), or threatened (Jolley et al., 2018). However, these data are not conclusive, since they are unstable and it is very influenced by cultural impact (Sallam, et al., 2020), and sociodemographic context of the sample (Vicol, 2020). ...
Pandemics are a global threat, with vaccination being the main weapon of control. Fear, an unpleasant emotional state caused by a threatening stimulus perception, is known to be behind inhibitory behaviours; being, with mistrust, the basis of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories (CTs). It would be appropriate to know the fear influence on these theories. In this way, a cross-sectional online survey was applied to 2.987 subjects, in a COVID-19 context, characterized by high levels of uncertainty and mistrust, with the aims of analyse the relationship between some anti-vaccine CTs and vaccination intention (VI), also the influence of fear to vaccination (VF) on TCs and VI in this context. As result, all CTs were positive predictors of VF and negative predictors of VI. The correlations were significant (p <0.001), from moderate to high, for all analysed variables, with a significant and moderate directionality and size of association. Regression analysis indicated a moderate and significant explained variance (r2 = 0.54) of CTs + VF in VI. The analysis also indicates that safety and security CTs were more strongly associated with VF (r2 = 0.347) and VI (r2 = 0.46) than other CTs. Obtained results were more significant than those found by other researchers. Knowing in each case the main anti-vaccine CTs and the associated fear can help to plan programs to increase vaccination levels.
... In an Indian study, 60% of the participants thought that illnesses were the result of luck or superstition [34]. In Northern Germany, superstitions were also reported in nearly 40% of men and 70% of women [35]. 70% of people in Africa use folk remedies like charms and witchcraft to treat their illnesses [36]. ...
People must have particular personality traits and social resources, also known as health literacy, in order to access, comprehend, and use information to make decisions about their health. Patients' ability to engage in complex disease management and self-care is strongly related to their level of health literacy. It can help us stay healthy by preventing illness and effectively managing existing illnesses. People with low health literacy (LHL) may find it difficult to manage their condition and prevent illness, which may lead to increased use of healthcare services. Furthermore, LHL is associated with increased hospitalizations, increased use of emergency care, decreased use of preventativ e services, and a worsened ability to understand labels and health messages, a worsened state of health, higher mortality, and more expensive medical care. Introduction Understanding common health care communications, such as prescription instructions, test results, and insurance forms, is referred to as health literacy. Health literacy improves a population's ability to care for themselves and aids in the reduction of health disparities. It has an impact on the use of health services, as well as on patient satisfaction and the physician-patient relationship. It is one of the major impediments to healthcare professionals adequately transmitting information to those under their care. Personal health literacy refers to a person's ability to locate, comprehend, and apply information and services to support health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others. Health literacy is recommended by the World Health Organization as a tool for achieving several important objectives outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals. Many factors can influence a person's health literacy, including knowledge of medical terminology; understanding of how the health care system operates; ability to communicate with health care providers; ability to locate health information, which may be associated with age, income, education, language skills, and culture; and physical or psychological limitations. Health literacy affects treatment adherence, which may have an impact on treatment outcomes. Despite the negative implications of LHL, physicians are typically unaware of their patients' health literacy levels and their subsequent effects on their patients' outcomes.
... Indian study, 60% of the participants thought that illnesses were the result of luck or superstition [34]. In Northern Germany, superstitions were also reported in nearly 40% of men and 70% of women [35]. 70% of people in Africa use folk remedies like charms and witchcraft to treat their illnesses [36]. ...
People must have particular personality traits and social resources, also known as health literacy, in order to access, comprehend, and use information to make decisions about their health. Patients' ability to engage in complex disease management and self-care is strongly related to their level of health literacy. It can help us stay healthy by preventing illness and effectively managing existing illnesses. People with low health literacy (LHL) may find it difficult to manage their condition and prevent illness, which may lead to increased use of healthcare services. Furthermore, LHL is associated with increased hospitalizations, increased use of emergency care, decreased use of preventative services, and a worsened ability to understand labels and health messages, a worsened state of health, higher mortality, and more expensive medical care.
... Finally, although little research has been carried out on the relationship between quality of interpersonal relationships and conspiracy beliefs (Biddlestone et al., 2021), or vice versa, it may be important to examine these variables alongside individuals' emotion dysregulation. Indeed, research has shown that feeling socially excluded is associated with increased conspiracy beliefs (Graeupner & Coman, 2017). Therefore, it might be the case that having supportive interpersonal relationships may mitigate the effect that emotion dysregulation has on the formation of conspiracy beliefs. ...
Conspiracy beliefs typically flourish in threatening situations that evoke negative emotions. In the present research, we hypothesized that conspiracy beliefs may therefore serve as a psychological response to difficulties in the domain of emotion regulation (i.e., dysregulation of emotional experiences, expressions, and responses). This hypothesis was tested among British, American, and Polish participants and conceptually replicated across three studies. Specifically, we examined the associations between difficulties in emotion regulation and belief in general notions of conspiracy (Study 1, n = 391 and Study 2, n = 411) and belief in specific conspiracy theories in (Study 3, n = 558). Across all three studies, difficulties in emotion regulation positively predicted belief in conspiracy theories. These findings suggest that people having more problems with regulating their emotions may be most prone to believing in conspiracy theories.
... Superstitions also reported in close to 40% men and 70% women in Northern Germany [60]. In Africa, 70% of people turn to indigenous treatments such as charms and witchery to treat their illness [61]. ...
... viera v existenciu duchov) presvedčenia. Skúmanie týchto presvedčení má dôležitý význam, keďže majú negatívny vplyv na medziskupinovú dynamiku (Graeupner & Coman, 2017), na zdravie (Jolley & Douglas, 2017), môžu viesť k predsudkom a diskriminácii (Jolley, Mele-ady & Douglas, in press), príp. aj k agresii voči osobám, ktoré sú predmetom konšpirácie (Swami et al., 2012). ...
Cieľom príspevku je poukázať na osobnostné zdroje epistemologicko nepodložených presvedčení (ENP), ktoré majú negatívny dosah ako na jednotlivcov tak aj na spoločnosť. Výskum sa zameriava na osobnostné črty temná triáda: narcizmus, psychopatia a machiavelizmus, a ich súvis s pseudovedeckými, paranormálnymi a konšpiračnými presvedčeniami. Výskumný súbor bol tvorený 829 respondentmi, z čoho bolo 481 (58%) žien, s priemerným vekom 29,98. Údaje boli získané prostredníctvom Škály epistemologicky nepodložených presvedčení a Krátkeho dotazníka Temnej triády. Údaje boli analyzované prostredníctvom lineárnej regresnej analýzy, kde závislé premenné boli tvorené dimenziami ENP a nezávislé premenné Temnou triádou. Ako kontrolné premenné boli súčasťou modelu aj demografické premenné: pohlavie, vek a ukončené vzdelanie. Výsledky regresnej analýzy ukázali, že narcizmus a machiavelizmus spoločne s demografickými premennými sú prediktormi meraných ENP. Spomenuté prediktory vysvetľujú najväčšiu variabilitu hodnôt u konšpiračných presvedčení (19%).
... People might choose to engage with reinforcing online conspiracist communities for social nourishment when they feel isolated or lonely 89 . Evidence that conspiracy beliefs are higher among those experiencing isolation, loneliness and rejection 66,67,90 reinforces the notion that people might be drawn to conspiracy theories to nourish a need for belonging. ...
Conspiracy theories are part of mainstream public life, with the potential to undermine governments, promote racism, ignite extremism and threaten public health efforts. Psychological research on conspiracy theories is booming, with more than half of the academic articles on the topic published since 2019. In this Review, we synthesize the literature with an eye to understanding the psychological factors that shape willingness to believe conspiracy theories. We begin at the individual level, examining the cognitive, clinical, motivational, personality and developmental factors that predispose people to believe conspiracy theories. Drawing on insights from social and evolutionary psychology, we then review research examining conspiracy theories as an intergroup phenomenon that reflects and reinforces societal fault lines. Finally, we examine how conspiracy theories are shaped by the economic, political, cultural and socio-historical contexts at the national level. This multilevel approach offers a deep and broad insight into conspiracist thinking that increases understanding of the problem and offers potential solutions. Conspiracy theories have the potential to undermine governments, promote racism, ignite extremism and threaten public health efforts. In this Review, Hornsey et al. synthesize the literature on factors that shape conspiracy beliefs at the individual, intergroup and national level.
... Anger has also been shown to promote belief in politically concordant misinformation 81 as well as COVID-19 misinformation 82 . Finally, social exclusion, which is likely to induce a negative mood, can increase susceptibility to conspiratorial content 83,84 . ...
Critical thinking for sustainable development therefore focuses on the soft skills of positive values and attitudes while at the same time embracing social, economic, political, and environmental transformation for the good of everyone irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity, or status in society.
Green marketing is developing and selling environmentally friendly goods or services. It helps improve credibility, enter a new audience segment, and stand out among competitors as more and more people become environmentally conscious.
Using eco-friendly paper and inks for print marketing materials. Skipping the printed materials altogether and option for electronic marketing. Having a recycling program and responsible waste disposal practices. Using eco-friendly product packaging.
Critical thinking helps people better understand themselves, their motivations and goals. When you can deduce information to find the most important parts and apply those to your life, you can change your situation and promote personal growth and overall happiness.
The reason why innovation benefits from critical thinking is simple; critical thinking is used when judgment is needed to produce a desired set of valued outcomes. That is why the majority of innovation outcomes reflect incremental improvements built on a foundation of critically thought-out solutions.
The results indicate that there are four factors that effectively influence fulfillment of green marketing, specifically, green labeling, compatibility, product value and green advertising.
A green mission statement becomes the foundation of a company's sustainability efforts. It provides the organization and its stakeholders with an understanding of what's most important and what your company can do to protect the natural world and be more socially responsible.
... The COVID-19 is a health risk. Endorsement of CCT might be a form of coping with the uncertainty of the pandemic (Van Prooijen & Douglas, 2017) and seeking affiliation when threat is close (Graeupner & Coman, 2017). As argued above, the more one believes in CCT, the more negative opinions regarding COVID-19 vaccinations efficacy and about vaccinating children against this disease they may have. ...
The co-occurrence of COVID-19 conspiracy theories (CCT) and fear of the coronavirus (FCV) can be linked to how safe people feel and how much they endorse vaccinations. School teachers were one of the vaccination priority groups in Poland. We conducted three cross-sectional studies (N1 = 1006; N2 = 1689; N3 = 627) to find out the potential interactive effects of CCT belief and FCV in predicting sense of safety (SoS; Studies 1-3), opinions about vaccinations efficacy (Studies 2-3) and endorsement of vaccinations of children (Study 3) among school teachers. In all three studies, the belief in CCT was related to lower SoS only when FCV was low. For low CCT belief, although the belief in vaccination efficacy was higher than for CCT endorsers, it was unrelated to FCV. However, for high and average CCT belief, FCV was linked to belief in vaccination efficacy. FCV was positively related to acceptance of vaccinating children on all levels of CCT endorsement. The results are discussed in light of the available literature and their potential use in public health.
... As noted previously, little research has explored direct links between ostracism and paranoia. Although not paranoia-related per se, a somewhat relevant strand of research has examined whether being ostracised is associated with, or leads to, the development of conspiracy beliefs (e.g., Graeupner & Coman, 2017). Conspiracy beliefs are generally viewed as explanatory frameworks that individuals or groups are working with a particular goal in mind that is malicious or sinister. ...
Ostracism is known to lead to negative psychological outcomes; however, little is known as to how ostracism may be a predictor of paranoid thoughts. The present paper examined the relationship between perceived ostracism and paranoid thoughts (social reference, persecution) by focusing on the potential moderating roles of psychological flexibility and inflexibility. As expected, data from a sample of 315 internet users (Mage = 31.5 years) showed that perceived ostracism was positively related to both social reference and persecution. Psychological flexibility did not moderate the ostracism-paranoid thought relationships. However, psychological inflexibility was a moderator of the ostracism-social reference relationship, but not for ostracism-persecution. Specifically, at both high and low levels of psychological inflexibility, there was a significant positive relationship between ostracism and social reference. These unexpected findings suggest that future research is needed to elucidate the mechanisms by which perceived ostracism may lead to paranoia.
... Other researchers focused instead on the perception of control loss, which in turn derives from feeling helpless and overwhelmed by significant events (e.g., Stojanov and Halberstadt 2020). Consequently, minorities that are alienated from mainstream society, such as members of racial and ethnic stigmatized minorities (e.g., Thorburn and Bogart 2015), of low-income groups (e.g., Mao et al. 2020) and ostracized people (Graeupner and Coman 2017), show a higher endorsement of conspiracy theories. Finally, other social psychologists and political scientists (e.g., Uscinski et al. 2021) focused on ideological attitudes that correlate with conspiracy beliefs. ...
In recent years, several studies have found that conspiracy believers tend to be more susceptible to cognitive biases (e.g., conjunction fallacy, proportionality bias, agency detection bias, etc.). The aim of this work is to review such literature, systematizing these concepts in a unifying framework of conspiracy mentality as a set of biased cognitive processes, which categorizes cognitive biases in two classes: those that contribute to belief formation and those that contribute to belief updating. Drawing on several empirical results, this paper summarizes the role of cognitive biases in conspiratorial thinking, offering some insights for future research and raising questions about the possible weaknesses of this approach.
... Previous research on ostracism, a form of social exclusion, has suggested that one of its most important consequences is indeed conspiratorial thinking (19,20). Thus, the social exclusion experienced during the COVID-19 lockdown could have led people to endorse conspiracy theories. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the occurrence of conspiracy theories. It has been suggested that a greater endorsement of these theories may be associated with psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), as well as with social isolation. In this preregistered study, we investigated whether both PLEs and measures of social isolation (e.g., loneliness) can predict conspiratorial beliefs and, if so, which of these variables can mediate the association with conspiratorial beliefs. Furthermore, based on previous studies on schizophrenia, we explored whether the diet is associated with PLEs and conspiratorial beliefs. Participants (N = 142) completed online questionnaires measuring PLEs, social isolation, mental well-being, and conspiratorial beliefs. They also submitted their daily food intake for a week using a smartphone app. We found that loneliness predicted the endorsement of conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 lockdown. Strikingly, the proneness to experience subclinical psychotic symptoms played an underlying mediating role. In addition, these subclinical symptoms were associated with lower fruit, carbohydrate, and iron intakes, as well as with higher fat intake. Our results add insights into how conspiratorial beliefs can affect individuals’ mental health and relationships. Moreover, these results open the avenue for potential novel intervention strategies to optimize food intake in individuals with PLEs.
... Beliefs in conspiracy theories are especially likely to emerge when adopting such beliefs satisfies psychological needs for order, certainty, or control (e.g., Crocker et al., 1999;Kay et al., 2008;Kramer, 1994;Sullivan et al., 2010;Whitson & Galinsky, 2008). After all, conspiracy theory beliefs can provide simplified explanations for complex, threatening phenomena Graeupner & Coman, 2017;Miller et al., 2016;Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009;Uscinski & Parent, 2014). Other research is suggestive of a potential conspiracy theory belief-related personality factor, whereby individuals may have a greater propensity towards "conspiracy thinking" (Brotherton et al., 2013;Imhoff & Bruder, 2014;Lewandowsky et al., 2013;Moscovici, 1987;Uscinski & Parent, 2014). ...
Research suggests that a number of cognitive processes—including pattern perception, intentionality bias, proportionality bias, and confirmation bias—may underlie belief in a conspiracy theory. However, there are reasons to believe that conspiracy theory beliefs also depend in part on a failure to understand the probability of actual events allegedly supporting those conspiracy theories as well as a failure to entertain disconfirming evidence that may contradict those beliefs. Study 1 examines the relationships between general beliefs in conspiracy theories, belief in a novel conspiracy theory, conjunctive error propensity, and the propensity to consider disconfirming evidence. Study 2 investigates the roles of confronting both the propensity to make conjunctive errors and the failure to consider disconfirming evidence in changing conspiracy theory beliefs as well as attitudes associated with those beliefs. The results of both studies suggest that corrections to one's propensity to make conjunctive errors and mindful consideration of disconfirming evidence may serve as viable methods of self‐persuasion pertaining to conspiracy theory beliefs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... Meaning-making processes and sense-making 1 motivation have been in the spotlight of research on the psychological functioning of individuals for some time (e.g., Graeupner and Coman, 2017;Petrou et al., 2017;Iwasaki et al., 2018;Walsh, 2020). This scientific interest may be attributed to the finding that sense-making motivation is related to important outcomes across life domains (personal, organizational, and societal). ...
People differ in the extent to which they express a need for sense-making (NSM), and these individual differences are important to understand in light of meaning-making processes. To quantify this important variable, we originally proposed a need for sense-making scale. We now propose a refined, similarly reliable short version of the scale (NSM-SF). The 7-item NSM-SF was validated across a series of four studies (combined N = 1,243). NSM-SF showed psychometric properties and correlations consistent with its longer forerunner. Additionally, results indicated that the need for sense-making was moderately positively related to the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, relatedness and competence), and it related negatively to the frustration of these needs. The research offers a useful, brief tool for assessing the NSM construct and broadens our understanding of basic psychological motivations.
... This is likely because people are more drawn to conspiracy theories when important psychological needs are frustrated 105 . Thus, conspiracy theories may gain more traction as COVID-19 spreads and more people isolate themselves 106 . ...
... Further research on perceived social isolation also provides support for a negative loop between social exclusion and conspiracy beliefs. While Graeupner and Coman [58] showed that social exclusion increases conspiracy beliefs, there are various findings supporting the opposite direction of conspiracy mentality as endangering or decreasing perceived social isolation and loneliness. Believing in conspiracy theories is also associated with less normative, legal political engagement but higher willingness to engage in illegal, non-normative political actions and in general lower intentions to go along with socially accepted and desired behaviors [37,59]. ...
Purpose
This study aims to analyze if and how conspiracy mentality is associated with mental health, burden and perceived social isolation and loneliness of informal caregivers of older individuals with care needs.
Methods
A quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted. Participants had to be at least 40 years of age and were drawn randomly from the German online panel forsa.omninet and questioned between the 4th and 19th of March 2021. A sample of 489 informal caregivers (relatives and non-relatives supporting individuals aged ≥ 60 years) was questioned. Conspiracy mentality, depressive symptoms, loneliness and social exclusion were measured with validated instruments (e.g., The Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire). Questions referred to the last three months prior to assessment. Multiple linear regression analyses, adjusted for sociodemographic, economic and health factors and indicators of the pandemic, were conducted.
Results
Findings indicate a significant positive association between conspiracy mentality and caregiver burden, loneliness, social exclusion, and depressive symptoms. No gender differences were found for any outcome.
Conclusions
The results indicate that conspiracy mentality could be a risk factor for mental health, perceived social isolation and loneliness, and contribute to increased caregiver burden among informal caregivers of older care recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, informal caregivers could benefit from actions focused on reducing conspiracy mentality during a health crisis, which could improve psychosocial health and wellbeing in this vulnerable group.
... For example, expressing conspiracist ideas on social media may lead to negative feedback or exclusion by content moderators [21]. The experience of social exclusion may itself increase superstitious [22] or conspiracist ideation [23]. The social costs incurred by exclusion may be partly compensated by the psychological benefit of fulfilling a heightened need for uniqueness (knowing more than the majority of other people) among CT believers compared to non-believers [24][25][26][27]. ...
Research on conspiracy theories tends to frame conspiracy believers as isolated individuals falling prey to irrational beliefs caused by a variety of pathological traits and cognitive shortcomings. But evidence is accumulating that conspiracy theory believers are also linked together in social movements capable of effectively coordinated collective action. We propose that conspiracy theory beliefs evolve over time, as part of a process of increasing disengagement from mainstream groups, and concomitant engagement in a community of like-minded individuals, capable of coordinated collective action. This approach allows portaying extreme conspiracism as attractive not despite its apparent irrationality, but precisely because of it. As such, conspiracy theories could not only be conceived as “beliefs”, but also as “social signals” advertising a subversive “counter-elite” posture.
... For example, expressing conspiracist ideas on social media may lead to negative feedback or exclusion by content moderators [21]. The experience of social exclusion may itself increase superstitious [22] or conspiracist ideation [23]. The social costs incurred by exclusion may be partly compensated by the psychological benefit of fulfilling a heightened need for uniqueness (knowing more than the majority of other people) among CT believers compared to non-believers [24][25][26][27]. ...
Research on conspiracy theories tends to frame conspiracy believers as isolated individuals falling prey to irrational beliefs caused by a variety of pathological traits and cognitive shortcomings. But evidence is accumulating that conspiracy theory believers are also linked together in social movements capable of effectively coordinated collective action. We propose that conspiracy theory beliefs evolve over time, as part of a process of increasing disengagement from mainstream groups, and concomitant engagement in a community of like-minded individuals, capable of coordinated collective action. This approach allows portraying extreme conspiracism as attractive not despite its apparent irrationality, but precisely because of it. As such, conspiracy theories could not only be conceived as “beliefs”, but also as “social signals” advertising a subversive “counter-elite” posture.
... While one may speculate that endorsing conspiracy and superstitious beliefs could counteract the negative impact of social isolation (e.g. Graeupner and Coman, 2017;Poon et al., 2020), it is not clear how these social psychology studies may apply to individuals who have a schizotypal personality. Besides, given that the zero-order correlation between loneliness and 'odd beliefs or magical thinking' was small (r = 0.06), controlling for other positive schizotypal traits in the same model, which could serve as colliders, may have led to the occurrence of a spurious negative edge (Pearl, 2009). ...
Background
Schizotypy is a multidimensional personality trait related to the heightened risk for the development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. While it has been suggested that loneliness may be associated with schizotypy in general, whether it relates to the specific schizotypal traits differentially remains unknown. Besides, as loneliness often co-occurs with depression and anxiety, it is important to delineate its relationship with schizotypy in consideration of these co-occurring emotional disturbances.
Methods
A demographically diverse sample of young people was obtained from multiple sources. The validated sample consisted of 2089 participants (68.4% female, age range: 18–30). The structural relationship between loneliness and schizotypy was modelled using a network analytic approach. The Gaussian graphical model with loneliness and nine schizotypal traits as nodes was first estimated without, and then with adjustment for the levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Edges were estimated as unique associations between nodes.
Results
‘Suspiciousness’, ‘odd beliefs or magical thinking’, ‘no close friends’, ‘constricted affect’ and ‘excessive social anxiety’ were linked to loneliness directly. Loneliness was found to be more strongly associated with ‘suspiciousness’ and ‘no close friends’ than other schizotypal traits. After adjustment for the levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms, the above direct edges remained robust.
Limitations
The use of cross-sectional data indicated only undirected associations between variables.
Conclusions
Loneliness was more strongly linked to some schizotypal traits than others, with the relationships maintaining above and beyond the effects of anxiety and depression. These findings warrant further investigation of the specific relationships between loneliness and individual schizotypal traits.
... Accordingly, three types of motivations underlie adherence to conspiracist beliefs, namely, (a) epistemic, (b) existential (the need to feel safe and in control), and (c) social (the need to belong with a group, see Douglas et al., 2017 for an overview). Empirical findings support this classification because adherence to unfounded beliefs is positively associated with uncertainty reduction (Marchlewska et al., 2018), loss of control (Whitson & Galinsky, 2008), death anxiety (Newheiser et al., 2011), and social exclusion threats (Graeupner & Coman, 2017). ...
The prevalence of unfounded beliefs (e.g. supernatural or conspiracy beliefs) remains an important issue due to their negative consequences in various domains. Interventions were shown to reduce supernatural beliefs only when addressing pseudoscientific ones. Based on these findings, we designed a single session intervention aiming to teach participants the epistemological distinction between science and pseudoscience. We then assessed the effectiveness of this intervention. Secondary school teachers (N = 130) were assigned to one of two groups focusing on critical thinking with or without the intervention content related to pseudoscience. Supernatural beliefs, conspiracy mentality and pattern perception were measured using computerized surveys pre‐ and one moth post‐intervention. Mixed‐model analyses revealed the expected decrease in conspiracy mentality, d = .60, supernatural beliefs, d = 1.01 and illusory pattern perception, d = .34 among teachers in the pseudoscience‐focused group. Our intervention constitutes a novel cost‐effective tool for critical thinking promotion among education professionals. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... Third, the social desire to retain the individual's and the group's positive regard. People are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories when they need to belong (Graeupner and Coman, 2017), or feel that their group is underappreciated (Cichocka et al., 2016). Responses to the vaccination request in terms of UO, include believing that the COVID-pandemic is not really dangerous, feeling more resilient than other people and undermining the risk of this sickness (Brown, 2012), or not believing in the possibility of being infected by the COVID-19 (Gassen et al., 2021;Salgado and Berntsen, 2021). ...
The COVID-19 vaccination campaign led to hesitancy, deferment and un-resolving resistance of certain groups or individuals worldwide. Reasons for these reactions include distrust in the COVID-19 vaccine that was developed rapidly, lack of trust in governing entities and unrealistic optimism (UO). Each of these reasons may involve claims of secret intentions or conspiracy theories. The present study examined the role of three different explanations for vaccine hesitancy and rejection, in predicting psychological coping, distress, and level of vaccine uptake, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Blaming the vaccine and its producers, blaming the state's authorities, and expressing criticism in UO terms, which may hint of some secret intention that underlies the vaccination request. The research was conducted on a sample of 2002 Israeli adults who responded to an anonymous questionnaire about vaccine hesitancy and psychological coping. We assumed that conspiracy theories aimed at the medical and the governing authorities, and the UO insinuations of covert intentions of these authorities, represent two different psychological processes. UO responses to adversity are aimed at reducing anxiety attributing covert intentions to the authorities and the pharmaceutical companies is an expression of anxiety. Three major hypotheses are examined. First, stronger criticism of the vaccine will be associated with a lower level of vaccination. Second, more extreme criticism of the political and the medical authorities for requesting vaccination, raised as a reason for vaccine hesitation will positively predict a higher level of anxiety and negatively predict the extent of good psychological coping. A stronger opposition to the vaccine in terms of UO will be positively associated with a greater scope of resilience and coping and will be negatively linked to indicators of distress. Results supported these hypotheses and enhanced the ongoing discussion on the contribution of UO to psychological adjustment, by illustrating its beneficial effects on this adjustment.
Conspiracy Theories and Secret Intentions as Predictors of Psychological Coping and Vaccine Uptake throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic in Israel.
... (Cichocka, Marchlewska, & Golec de Zavala, 2016) These type of believes may be recruited as a defense mechanism, to relieve the self or a group from a sense of responsibility and/or culpability for their disadvantaged position or lack of action in certain regards. The disadvantaged position is a trait that can have many roots, but the most common are the experiences of ostracism -people believing in superstitions or conspiracy theories as part of the effort to make sense out of their existence (Graeupner & Coman, 2017); people that belong to groups that have a low status because of their ethnicity, (Crocker, Luhtanen, Broadnax, & Blaine, 1999); people that have low income (Uscinski & Parent, 2014). Narcissism -an inflated view of oneself that requires external validation -is also coherent to the defensive motivation of individuals. ...
The aim of this paper is to argue that people’s decision to not get vaccinated against COVID- 19 – more commonly known as Coronavirus – in Romania is strongly enforced by distrust in what we would call scientific knowledge and an abnormal propensity towards mythical knowledge, regarded by many as nonscientific knowledge. In the following pages, I will present some of the psycho-social arguments regarding the motives of one’s choice of beliefs, the social representations that follow these motives and why the social representations that disregard scientific knowledge tend to have serious consequences on the society.
... Emotions play an important role in determining how people respond to crises, yet we know little about how people subjectively interpret crisis information presented in charts and graphs. During crises, such as pandemics, an individual's judgement may be impaired if their way of life is being threatened (Blumenthal-Barby and Burroughs, 2012), which can lead to selfish or panicked behavior (O'Keefe and Reid, 1990), self-isolation (Graeupner and Coman, 2017), prejudices (Kofta et al., 2020), or blaming others for negative outcomes (Douglas et al., 2017). These strong emotions can negatively impact communities. ...
We examined the relationship between political affiliation, perceptual (percentage, slope) estimates, and subjective judgements of disease prevalence and mortality across three chart types. An online survey (N = 787) exposed separate groups of participants to charts displaying (a) COVID-19 data or (b) COVID-19 data labeled ‘Influenza (Flu)’. Block 1 examined responses to cross-sectional mortality data (bar graphs, treemaps); results revealed that perceptual estimates comparing mortality in two countries were similar across political affiliations and chart types (all ps > .05), while subjective judgements revealed a disease x political party interaction ( p < .05). Although Democrats and Republicans provided similar proportion estimates, Democrats interpreted mortality to be higher than Republicans; Democrats also interpreted mortality to be higher for COVID-19 than Influenza. Block 2 examined responses to time series (line graphs); Democrats and Republicans estimated greater slopes for COVID-19 trend lines than Influenza lines ( p < .001); subjective judgements revealed a disease x political party interaction ( p < .05). Democrats and Republicans indicated similar subjective rates of change for COVID-19 trends, and Democrats indicated lower subjective rates of change for Influenza than in any other condition. Thus, while Democrats and Republicans saw the graphs similarly in terms of percentages and line slopes, their subjective interpretations diverged. While we may see graphs of infectious disease data similarly from a purely mathematical or geometric perspective, our political affiliations may moderate how we subjectively interpret the data.
... The high predictive value of the subscale relationship model seems plausible because the relationship model is conceptually linked to the attachment theory and previous research found an association between an insecure attachment style and conspiracy beliefs [60]. This matches findings about the association between feelings of social exclusion and conspiracy beliefs [61,62]. The subscale self-perception was positively associated with conspiracy mentality. ...
Background
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, many individuals have been found to endorse conspiracy beliefs. Socio-demographic variables, personality functioning, anxiety, and loneliness could be risk factors for this endorsement.
Methods
In a representative sample of the German population ( N = 2,503) measures of conspiracy mentality, conspiracy-related beliefs toward COVID-19, personality functioning (OPD-SQS), anxiety (HADS), and loneliness (UCLA) were assessed. Pearson product-moment correlations and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted.
Results
Conspiracy mentality and conspiracy-related beliefs toward COVID-19 were strongly correlated. Regression analyses found younger age, male gender, lower education, and lower income to be associated with conspiracy mentality. The subscales relationship model and self-perception of the OPD-SQS were positively related to conspiracy mentality whereas interpersonal contact was negatively associated. Higher levels of anxiety were statistically predictive for conspiracy mentality.
Conclusion
Our findings indicate a contribution of personality functioning to the understanding of conspiracy mentality and thus to the advancement of interventions during the pandemic.
... Interestingly, some studies showed that loneliness could continue even when the lockdowns ended 15 and that the development of mental health problems can further strengthen the magnitude of loneliness 18 . Previous research on ostracism, a form of social exclusion, has suggested that one of its most important consequences is indeed conspiratorial thinking 19,20 . Thus, the social exclusion experienced during the Covid-19 lockdown could have led people to endorse conspiracy theories. ...
The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the occurrence of conspiracy theories. It has been suggested that a greater endorsement of these theories may be associated with psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), as well as with social isolation. In this preregistered study, we investigated whether both PLEs and measures of social isolation (e.g., loneliness) can predict conspiratorial beliefs and, if so, which of these variables can mediate the association with conspiratorial beliefs. Furthermore, based on previous studies on schizophrenia, we explored whether the diet is associated with PLEs and conspiratorial beliefs. Participants (N=142) completed online questionnaires measuring PLEs, social isolation, mental well-being, and conspiratorial beliefs. They also submitted their daily food intake for a week using a smartphone app.We found that loneliness predicted the endorsement of conspiracy theories during the Covid-19 lockdown. Strikingly, the proneness to experience subclinical psychotic symptoms played an underlying mediating role. In addition, these subclinical symptoms were associated with lower fruit, carbohydrate and iron intakes, as well as with higher fat intake.Our results add insights into how conspiratorial beliefs can affect individuals’ mental health and relationships. Moreover, these results open the avenue for potential novel intervention strategies to optimize food intake in individuals with psychotic-like experiences.
... Anger has also been shown to promote belief in politically concordant misinformation 81 as well as COVID-19 misinformation 82 . Finally, social exclusion, which is likely to induce a negative mood, can increase susceptibility to conspiratorial content 83,84 . ...
Misinformation has been identified as a major contributor to various contentious contemporary events ranging from elections and referenda to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only can belief in misinformation lead to poor judgements and decision-making, it also exerts a lingering influence on people’s reasoning after it has been corrected — an effect known as the continued influence effect. In this Review, we describe the cognitive, social and affective factors that lead people to form or endorse misinformed views, and the psychological barriers to knowledge revision after misinformation has been corrected, including theories of continued influence. We discuss the effectiveness of both pre-emptive (‘prebunking’) and reactive (‘debunking’) interventions to reduce the effects of misinformation, as well as implications for information consumers and practitioners in various areas including journalism, public health, policymaking and education.
As a strategy against the outbreak and the further spreading of Covid-19, countries, states and communities used different approaches. To protect citizens, governments developed coronavirus mitigation measures and due to which, people were confronted with restrictions in their everyday life. As could be observed in many countries, the society mood turned, since many people did not agree with these restrictions and some people even started demonstrating against governmental mitigation measures. In this context, it can be assumed that some people are more prone to believe in rumors and fake news spread on social media than others. Consequently, a critical attitude is being developed against the government and/or Covid-19 mitigation measures. The present study uses the quantitative data collection method to investigate why some people change their behavior in crises situations and why they are more prone to believing rumors and fake news on social media than others. The results showed that the higher people rate themselves as being critical, the less they believe in rumors and fake news on social media, the less they change their behavior during the pandemic in terms of rejecting Covid-19 mitigation measures. Therefore, it is also more likely that people will follow the measures to mitigate the effects of coronavirus infection.
This chapter investigates the rapid spread of conspiracy theories, fake news and misinformation. The perpetrators were a heterogeneous grouping from those who genuinely felt aggrieved with the removal of personal freedoms by public health orders rather than by elected government, to long-term convinced anti-vaxxers, ‘sovereign citizens’ who argued no laws apply to them and even Doomsday preppers. Rallies and convoys blocking roads and bridges occurred in many world cities. The major focus was mandated vaccination. The impact of denialism, artificial confirmation bias and paranoia in creating this tumult is discussed. Miracle cures like Ivermectin became a popular online topic. The use of debunking, prebunking and the ‘Bad News’ game to thwart the conspiracy theories and fake news is discussed and shown to be effective.KeywordsConspiracy theoriesFake newsMandated vaccinationDenialismConfirmation biasDebunking
Tarihi uzun yıllar öncesine dayanan yalan bilgi ve haber üretimi, tüketimi ve paylaşımı sorunu, internet teknolojisinin gelişmesiyle birlikte ile tüm dünyayı etkisi altına almaya başlamıştır. Giderek büyüyen bu sorun, insanlığın geleceğini tehdit eden ciddi bir tehlike haline gelme yolundadır. Giderek büyüyen bu sorun, insanlığın geleceğini tehdit eden ciddi bir tehlike haline gelme yolundadır. Farklı zamanlarda yapılan bilimsel araştırmalarda, bu sorununun açıklanması ve anlaşılmasına yönelik teoriler geliştirilmiş, çözüm yolları önerilmiştir. Ancak, farklı bir çok faktörden kaynaklanan olan bu sorunun anlaşılabilmesi için, genel bir bakış açısı ile yapılan çalışmalardan bir adım daha ileriye giderek, bu faktörlerin her birine yönelik çözüm odaklı çalışmalar yapılması gerektiği kanaatindeyiz. Bu varsayımdan hareketle çalışmamızın amacını, şimdiye kadar yapılan araştırmalarda üzerinde gereği kadar durulmayan, bireylerin yaşadığı sosyal dışlanmışlık kaygısının, yalan/sahte bilgi ve haberlerin yaygınlaşmasındaki rolünü incelemek olarak tespit ettik. Bir başka ifadeyle bu çalışmanın amacı yalan haberlerin yaygınlaşmasında, “Sosyal Dışlanmışlık Faktörü”nün oynadığı rolün araştırılmasıdır. Çalışmamızda, insanları yalan/sahte bilgi ve haber paylaşma davranışına yönelten nedenler sorunu, sosyal dışlanmışlık kaygısı örneği üzerinden analiz edilecektir. İlk olarak, araştırmamızın, kavramsal çerçevesini oluşturan ve yalan/sahte haber içeriklerinin yayılmasında çok önemli rol oynadığı varsayılan “yalan/sahte bilgi/ haber, bilgi bozukluğu, yankı odaları ve filtre baloncukları, sosyal dışlanma kaygısı ve doğrulama-onaylama- yanlılığı” gibi kavramların açıklanmasına yer verilecek, ardından bu davranışların açıklanması ve anlaşılmasında yararlanılabilecek Festinger’in “Bilişsel Çelişki”, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann’ın geliştirdiği “Suskunluk Sarmalı” kuramları açıklanacak ve bu kuramların “yalan, yanlış ve yanıltıcı bilgi/haber içeriği üretme, tüketme ve paylaşma davranışları”nı açıklamada yetersiz kaldığı noktalar dile getirilecek ve sonrasında da bireylerin “yalan, yanlış ve yanıltıcı bilgi/haber içeriği üretme, tüketme ve paylaşma davranışları” altında yatan sosyal ve psikolojik faktörler ile ilgili yapılan mevcut çalışmalar taranacak ve bu sorunun anlaşılmasına katkıları değerlendirilecektir. Sosyal dışlanmışlık kaygısı, birey üzerinde çok yönlü bir baskı oluşturmaktadır. Birey, bu baskıya karşı kendini koruyabilmek için, kendi kişisel özelliklerine bağlı olarak içgüdüsel olarak geliştirdiği farklı yöntemler uygulayabilmektedir. Bu araştırmamızda, sosyal dışlanmışlık kaygısının neden olduğu baskıya karşı, bireyin kendi görüşüne yakın gruplarla bağlantı kurmaya yönelebileceği, bu amaçla sosyal medyadan destek arama yoluna gidebileceği varsayımı üzerine odaklandık. Bu varsayımdan hareketle, içinde yaşadığı toplum tarafından dışlanan bireyin, bu etkiye karşı herhangi bir tepki göstermeyerek, toplumla bağlarını koparmamaya çalışacağını ancak, bu baskının, kendi doğruları üzerine kurduğu kendi düşünce dünyası (iç dünyası)’nda, kendi doğrularına olan inancını sarsabileceği endişesiyle, social medyada, kendi doğrularına olan inancını güçlendirecek, destekleyecek görüşler aramaya yönelebileceğini ifade ettik. Bu varsayımımızı açıklamak üzere, “Sahte Bilgi/Haber Paylaşma Modeli” adını verdiğimiz bir model geliştirdik. Bu modelden yararlanılarak gerçekleştirilen araştırmamızın, yalan/sahte bilgi ve haberlerin yaygınlaşması sorununa, farklı bakış açısı getiren önemli bir çalışma olduğu kanaatindeyiz.
Conspiracy theorists’ unpopular opinions likely make them more apprehensive about interactions with others, frustrating their need to belong. Therefore, they may be susceptible to believing misinformation because evidence that others share their beliefs provides “social proof” that they can expect interactions with others to be positive and rewarding. The present research examined whether alternatively fulfilling the need for social connection through romantic relationships could protect conspiracy theorists against COVID-19 misinformation. In a 3-week daily diary study (N = 555), experimental participants implicitly learned to associate their romantic partners with positive experiences (by repeatedly pairing their partner with highly positive and approachable stimuli, McNulty et al., 2017). We then assessed how much participants trusted individuals they might normally distrust, as a manipulation check, and how much participants tuned their daily personal beliefs and behavior to match the U.S. public's daily susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation. Participants high on conspiratorial thinking trusted fellow community members more in the experimental than control condition. Participants high on conspiratorial thinking in the experimental condition were also less likely to treat the U.S. public's greater daily susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation as proof that they could discount the virus. The present findings suggest that rewarding romantic connections might be leveraged to limit conspiracy theorists’ susceptibility to believing public skepticism about COVID-19.
Public and scientific interest in why people believe in conspiracy theories (CT) surged in the past years. To come up with a theoretical explanation, researchers investigated relationships of CT belief with psychological factors such as political attitudes, emotions, or personality. However, recent studies have put the robustness of these relationships into question. In the present study, a prediction‐based analysis approach and machine learning models are deployed to detect and remedy poor replicability of CT belief associations. The analysis of a representative dataset with 2025 UK citizens supports the assumption that the current simplicity of the field's analysis routine, exhibiting high sample‐specificity and neglecting complex associations of psychological factors with CT belief, may obscure important relationships. The results further point towards key components of conspiratorial mindsets like general distrust and low socio‐political control. Important implications for building a coherent theory of CT belief are derived.
Despite widespread recognition that conspiracy theories carry the potential for serious harm, relatively little research has investigated possible antidotes to conspiracy beliefs. Previous theorizing posits that belief in conspiracy theories is driven in part by existential motives related to a sense of control and social motives aimed at maintaining a positive image of oneself and one's ingroup. Using electoral contests as the context, we investigated whether the act of voting (i.e., addressing existential motives) and seeing one's preferred candidate win (i.e., addressing social motives) were associated with a reduction in conspiracy beliefs. In two two-wave studies of high-profile U.S. elections, we measured endorsement of conspiracy beliefs before the election and after the results were known, thereby tracking change in conspiracy belief endorsement over time. Both Study 1 (2020 U.S. Presidential election) and Study 2 (2021 Georgia Senate runoff election) showed a significant decrease in conspiracy beliefs among people who supported the winning candidate, consistent with the importance of social motives. The findings highlight the merits of one's political ideology receiving support and recognition for potentially abating conspiracy beliefs.
Conspiracy theories are a folk narrative genre that tends to arise whenever crises occur; thus, inevitably, these kinds of theories appeared on the pandemic of COVID-19 as well. Their spread used to be done through magazines with relevant subject matter and through the word of mouth. The internet has changed this treaty because, by giving space in the dissemination of any information, it seems to have enhanced the widest spread of this narrative genre too. So, in this chapter, the impact of the internet on the genre will be highlighted through a long-term digital folklore research on the Greek internet. Through the case study of conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic, in the context of digital folklore, this chapter intents to highlight the impact of the internet on the genre, its spread, and its function, as well as the way the internet users' uptake the genre.
Concern over substance use, including alcohol, marijuana, and amphetamines, among college students remains high. Substance use on campus is associated with a seemingly endless list of negative outcomes including decreased academic performance, inhibited cognitive functions, physical and sexual violence, and even death. Cast against a backdrop of increasing substance use rates over the past few decades, we argue that criminologists must turn towards examining novel—and perhaps unexpected—correlates of substance use to better address this issue. In light of this, the current study draws from labeling theory to explore the linkage between paranormal beliefs, stigma, and substance use among college students. Specifically, we examine how both internalized negative messages about paranormal beliefs and perceived external stigma about paranormal beliefs relate to substance use among college students. Analysis of an original dataset from a midsized university revealed that respondents who internalized a negative label about their paranormal beliefs reported elevated levels of substance use relative to those who did not internalize negative paranormal labels. Second, individuals who reported believing society assigns a negative stigma to paranormal beliefs reported lower levels of substance use. Finally, considering the importance of both internal and external stigma, examination of an interaction between these two constructs indicated that greater levels of external social stigma conditioned a negative relationship between label internalization and substance use. We examine the implications of these findings for substance use among college students.
Meaning in life is vital for human wellbeing. Research has examined important sources of meaning: however, it has not yet investigated whether certain sources of meaning might be more predictive of overall meaning and wellbeing. A community sample of 247 individuals (30 – 69 years) rated the degree of meaningfulness they experienced in certain domains and completed 11 wellbeing measures. Presence of meaning was positively predicted by family and interpersonal relations, and negatively by leisure activities; search for meaning was positively predicted by personal growth and religiosity/spirituality. Meaning from family and health aided in the process of searching for meaning leading to presence of meaning; similarly, meaning from family, interpersonal relationships, health, religiosity/spirituality and life in general buffered against impoverished wellbeing when searching for meaning. Presence and wellbeing were both higher if the domains of work, family, interpersonal relations, community/society issues, and life in general were highly endorsed. Lastly, highly endorsing a larger number of sources buffered against negative wellbeing outcomes when searching for meaning. Overall, we found that meaning from important domains such as family and interpersonal relationships, and strongly endorsing a wide variety of sources, protected against negative wellbeing outcomes when searching for meaning.
Scientific theories in the natural sciences posit invisible forces operating with measurable effects on physical bodies, but the scientific study of invisible forces acting on human bodies has made limited progress. The topics of sociality, spirituality, and meaning making are cases in point. The authors discuss some of the possible reasons for this as well as contemporary developments in the social sciences and neurosciences that may make such study possible and productive.
For many, religious belief is a source of meaning and a resource for coping with life stressors that have the potential to undercut meaning. In the present study, we sought to further probe the connection between religion and meaning by focusing on the potential for threatened meaning to inspire belief in miraculous testimonials. We threatened meaning with a meaninglessness manipulation and then had participants read testimonials in which people described miraculous experiences involving supernatural agents and rate the extent to which they believed these testimonials to be credible and true. Meaning threat, relative to a control condition, increased belief in miraculous stories.
We hypothesised that belief in conspiracy theories would be predicted by the general tendency to attribute agency and intentionality where it is unlikely to exist. We further hypothesised that this tendency would explain the relationship between education level and belief in conspiracy theories, where lower levels of education have been found to be associated with higher conspiracy belief. In Study 1 (N = 202) participants were more likely to agree with a range of conspiracy theories if they also tended to attribute intentionality and agency to inanimate objects. As predicted, this relationship accounted for the link between education level and belief in conspiracy theories. We replicated this finding in Study 2 (N = 330), whilst taking into account beliefs in paranormal phenomena. These results suggest that education may undermine the reasoning processes and assumptions that are reflected in conspiracy belief.
Threats to control have been found to increase belief in conspiracy theories. We argue, however, that previous research observing this effect was limited in two ways. First, previous research did not exclude the possibility that affirming control might reduce conspiracy beliefs. Second, because of artificial lab procedures, previous findings provide little information about the external validity of the control threat–conspiracy belief relationship. In Study 1, we address the first limitation and find that affirming control indeed reduces belief in conspiracy theories as compared with a neutral baseline condition. In Study 2, we address the second limitation of the literature. In a large-scale US sample, we find that a societal threat to control, that citizens actually experienced, predicts belief in a range of common conspiracy theories. Taken together, these findings increase insight in the fundamental relationship between the human need for control and the tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Confirmation bias, as the term is typically used in the psychological literature, connotes the seeking or interpreting of evidence in ways that are partial to existing beliefs, expectations, or a hypothesis in hand. The author reviews evidence of such a bias in a variety of guises and gives examples of its operation in several practical contexts. Possible explanations are considered, and the question of its utility or disutility is discussed.
When faced with a significant threat to life people tend to reflect more intensely upon existential issues, such as the meaning and purpose of one’s life. Brain tumor poses a serious threat to a person’s life, functioning and personhood. Although recognised as an important dimension of quality of life, existential well-being is not well understood and reflects an overlooked area of support for people with brain tumor. This perspective article reviews the historical underpinnings of the concept of existential well-being and integrates this discussion with theoretical perspectives and research on meaning making and psychological adjustment to primary brain tumor. We then provide an overview of psychosocial support interventions for people with brain tumor and describe the findings of a recently published psychotherapy trial targeting existential well-being. Overall, this article highlights the importance of assessing the existential support needs of people with brain tumor and their family members, and providing different avenues of support to facilitate the meaning making process across the illness trajectory.
Confirmation bias, as the term is typically used in the psychological literature, connotes the seeking or interpreting of evidence in ways that are partial to existing beliefs, expectations, or a hypothesis in hand. The author reviews evidence of such a bias in a variety of guises and gives examples of its operation in several practical contexts. Possible explanations are considered, and the question of its utility or disutility is discussed. When men wish to construct or support a theory, how they torture facts into their service! (Mackay, 1852/ 1932, p. 552) Confirmation bias is perhaps the best known and most widely accepted notion of inferential error to come out of the literature on human reasoning. (Evans, 1989, p. 41) If one were to attempt to identify a single problematic aspect of human reasoning that deserves attention above all others, the confirma- tion bias would have to be among the candidates for consideration. Many have written about this bias, and it appears to be sufficiently strong and pervasive that one is led to wonder whether the bias, by itself, might account for a significant fraction of the disputes, altercations, and misun- derstandings that occur among individuals, groups, and nations.
Scientific theories in the natural sciences posit invisible forces operating with measurable effects on physical bodies, but the scientific study of invisible forces acting on human bodies has made limited progress. The topics of sociality, spirituality, and meaning making are cases in point. The authors discuss some of the possible reasons for this as well as contemporary developments in the social sciences and neurosciences that may make such study possible and productive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Counseling psychologists often work with clients to increase their well-being as well as to decrease their distress. One important aspect of well-being, highlighted particularly in humanistic theories of the counseling process, is perceived meaning in life. However, poor measurement has hampered research on meaning in life. In 3 studies, evidence is provided for the internal consistency, temporal stability, factor structure, and validity of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), a new 10-item measure of the presence of, and the search for, meaning in life. A multitrait-multimethod matrix demonstrates the convergent and discriminant validity of the MLQ subscales across time and informants, in comparison with 2 other meaning scales. The MLQ offers several improvements over current meaning in life measures, including no item overlap with distress measures, a stable factor structure, better discriminant validity, a briefer format, and the ability to measure the search for meaning.
A perceiver's actions, although based upon initially erroneous beliefs about a target individual may channel social interaction in ways that cause the behavior of the target to confirm the perceiver's beliefs. To chart this process of behavioral confirmation, we observed successive interactions between one target and two perceivers. In the first interaction, targets who interacted with perceivers who anticipated hostile partners displayed greater behavioral hostility than targets whose perceivers expected nonhostile partners. Only when targets regarded their actions as reflections of personal dispositions did these behavioral differences in hostility persevere into their subsequent interactions with naive perceivers who had no prior knowledge about them. Theoretical implications of the behavioral confirmation construct for social perception processes are discussed.
We argue that infant meaning-making processes are a central mechanism governing both typical and pathological outcomes. Infants, as open dynamic systems, must constantly garner information to increase their complexity and coherence. They fulfill this demand by making nonverbal "meaning"-affects, movements, representations-about themselves in relation to the world and themselves into a "biopsychosocial state of consciousness," which shapes their ongoing engagement with the world. We focus on the operation of the infant-adult communication system, a dyadic, mutually regulated system that scaffolds infants' engagement with the world of people, things, and themselves, and consequently their meaning-making. We argue that infant mental health problems emerge when the meanings infants make in the moment, which increase their complexity and coherence and may be adaptive in the short run, selectively limit their subsequent engagement with the world and, in turn, the growth of their state of consciousness in the long run. When chronic and iterative, these altered meanings can interfere with infants' successful development and heighten their vulnerability to pathological outcomes. Cultural variations in meaning-making and implications for clinical practice are discussed.
Interest in meaning and meaning making in the context of stressful life events continues to grow, but research is hampered by conceptual and methodological limitations. Drawing on current theories, the author first presents an integrated model of meaning making. This model distinguishes between the constructs of global and situational meaning and between "meaning-making efforts" and "meaning made," and it elaborates subconstructs within these constructs. Using this model, the author reviews the empirical research regarding meaning in the context of adjustment to stressful events, outlining what has been established to date and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of current empirical work. Results suggest that theory on meaning and meaning making has developed apace, but empirical research has failed to keep up with these developments, creating a significant gap between the rich but abstract theories and empirical tests of them. Given current empirical findings, some aspects of the meaning-making model appear to be well supported but others are not, and the quality of meaning-making efforts and meanings made may be at least as important as their quantity. This article concludes with specific suggestions for future research.
Competing predictions about the effect of social exclusion were tested by meta-analyzing findings from studies of interpersonal rejection, ostracism, and similar procedures. Rejection appears to cause a significant shift toward a more negative emotional state. Typically, however, the result was an emotionally neutral state marked by low levels of both positive and negative affect. Acceptance caused a slight increase in positive mood and a moderate increase in self-esteem. Self-esteem among rejected persons was no different from neutral controls. These findings are discussed in terms of belongingness motivation, sociometer theory, affective numbing, and self-esteem defenses.
Superstitious behaviours, which arise through the incorrect assignment of cause and effect, receive considerable attention in psychology and popular culture. Perhaps owing to their seeming irrationality, however, they receive little attention in evolutionary biology. Here we develop a simple model to define the condition under which natural selection will favour assigning causality between two events. This leads to an intuitive inequality--akin to an amalgam of Hamilton's rule and Pascal's wager--that shows that natural selection can favour strategies that lead to frequent errors in assessment as long as the occasional correct response carries a large fitness benefit. It follows that incorrect responses are the most common when the probability that two events are really associated is low to moderate: very strong associations are rarely incorrect, while natural selection will rarely favour making very weak associations. Extending the model to include multiple events identifies conditions under which natural selection can favour associating events that are never causally related. Specifically, limitations on assigning causal probabilities to pairs of events can favour strategies that lump non-causal associations with causal ones. We conclude that behaviours which are, or appear, superstitious are an inevitable feature of adaptive behaviour in all organisms, including ourselves.
Significance
Human memory is highly malleable. Because of this malleability, jointly remembering the past along with another individual often results in increased similarity between the conversational partners’ memories. We propose an approach that examines the conversation between a pair of participants as part of a larger network of social interactions that has the potential to reveal how human communities form collective memories. Empirical evidence indicating that dyadic-level conversational alignment processes give rise to community-wide shared memories is presented. We find that individual-level memory updating phenomena and social network structure are two fundamental factors that contribute to the emergence of collective memories.
We hypothesized participants would adopt diverging impression management strategies when interacting with lower- versus higher-status others, to disconfirm status-based stereotypes of their own respective coldness or incompetence. In Study 1, downward comparers downplayed their own competence to appear warmer, and upward comparers downplayed their own warmth to appear more competent. In status comparisons with counter-stereotypical targets, Studies 2a and 2b showed impression management strategies no longer diverge, but effects do not reverse, suggesting a combination of stereotype-disconfirming and target trait-matching goals. Study 3 replicates diverging strategies in downward and upward status comparisons and suggests diverging reasons for these strategies: Downward comparers perceive reason to disconfirm status-based stereotypes, while upward comparers perceive reason to match their comparison target. Together, these studies show mere status differences shift individuals' interaction goals in conveying two central dimensions of impression formation, warmth and competence.
Five studies tested hypotheses derived from the sociometer model of self-esteem according to which the self-esteem system monitors others' reactions and alerts the individual to the possibility of social exclusion. Study 1 showed that the effects of events on participants' state self-esteem paralleled their assumptions about whether such events would lead others to accept or reject them. In Study 2, participants' ratings of how included they felt in a real social situation correlated highly with their self-esteem feelings. In Studies 3 and 4, social exclusion caused decreases in self-esteem when respondents were excluded from a group for personal reasons, but not when exclusion was random, but this effect was not mediated by self-presentation. Study 5 showed that trait self-esteem correlated highly with the degree to which respondents generally felt included versus excluded by other people. Overall, results provided converging evidence for the sociometer model.
We examine the relation between memory and self by considering errors of memory. We draw on the idea that memory's imperfections can be classified into seven basic categories or “sins.” Three of the sins concern different types of forgetting (transience, absent-mindedness, and blocking), three concern different types of distortion (misattribution, suggestibility, and bias), and one concerns intrusive memories (persistence). We focus in particular on two of the distortion-related sins, misattribution and bias. By describing cognitive, neuropsychological, and neuroimaging studies that illuminate these memory sins, we consider how they might bear on the relation between memory and self.
This paper reviews and synthesizes functional imaging research that over the past decade has begun to offer new insights into the brain mechanisms underlying emotion regulation. Toward that end, the first section of the paper outlines a model of the processes and neural systems involved in emotion generation and regulation. The second section surveys recent research supporting and elaborating the model, focusing primarily on studies of the most commonly investigated strategy, which is known as reappraisal. At its core, the model specifies how prefrontal and cingulate control systems modulate activity in perceptual, semantic, and affect systems as a function of one's regulatory goals, tactics, and the nature of the stimuli and emotions being regulated. This section also shows how the model can be generalized to understand the brain mechanisms underlying other emotion regulation strategies as well as a range of other allied phenomena. The third and last section considers directions for future research, including how basic models of emotion regulation can be translated to understand changes in emotion across the life span and in clinical disorders.
Many millions of people hold conspiracy theories; they believe that powerful people have worked together in order to withhold the truth about some important practice or some terrible event. A recent example is the belief, widespread in some parts of the world, that the attacks of 9/11 were carried out not by Al Qaeda, but by Israel or the United States. Those who subscribe to conspiracy theories may create serious risks, including risks of violence, and the existence of such theories raises significant challenges for policy and law. The first challenge is to understand the mechanisms by which conspiracy theories prosper; the second challenge is to understand how such theories might be undermined. Such theories typically spread as a result of identifiable cognitive blunders, operating in conjunction with informational and reputational influences. A distinctive feature of conspiracy theories is their self-sealing quality. Conspiracy theorists are not likely to be persuaded by an attempt to dispel their theories; they may even characterize that very attempt as further proof of the conspiracy. Because those who hold conspiracy theories typically suffer from a crippled epistemology, in accordance with which it is rational to hold such theories, the best response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups. Various policy dilemmas, such as the question whether it is better for government to rebut conspiracy theories or to ignore them, are explored in this light.
Four studies (N = 643) supported the hypothesis that social exclusion would reduce the global perception of life as meaningful. Social exclusion was manipulated experimentally by having a confederate refuse to meet participants after seeing their videotaped introduction (Study 1) and by ostracizing participants in a computerized ball-tossing game (Study 2). Compared to control condition and acceptance conditions, social exclusion led to perceiving life as less meaningful. Exclusion was also operationalized as self-reported loneliness, which was a better predictor of low meaning than other potent variables (Study 3). Study 4 found support for Baumeister's model of meaning (1991), by demonstrating that the effect of exclusion on meaning was mediated by purpose, value, and positive self-worth.
We present six experiments that tested whether lacking control increases illusory pattern perception, which we define as the identification of a coherent and meaningful interrelationship among a set of random or unrelated stimuli. Participants who lacked control were more likely to perceive a variety of illusory patterns, including seeing images in noise, forming illusory correlations in stock market information, perceiving conspiracies, and developing superstitions. Additionally, we demonstrated that increased pattern perception has a motivational basis by measuring the need for structure directly and showing that the causal link between lack of control and illusory pattern perception is reduced by affirming the self. Although these many disparate forms of pattern perception are typically discussed as separate phenomena, the current results suggest that there is a common motive underlying them.
The Chinese version of the Purpose in Life questionnaire (C-PIL) was administered to 2,150 Chinese secondary school students, along with other instruments assessing psychiatric symptoms and positive mental health. Total C-PIL and its two subscales, Quality of Existence (QEXIST) and Purpose of Existence (PEXIST), correlated significantly with all measures of psychological well-being. Relative to PEXIST scores, QEXIST scores were found to be more predictive of psychological well-being. Subjects with different existential status (defined by high vs. low levels of QEXIST and PEXIST) were associated with different degrees of psychological well-being. The concept of meaning in life, as indexed by the C-PIL, and the hypothesis that life meaning is related to psychological well-being require further elaboration and refinement.
It is proposed that motivation may affect reasoning through reliance on a biased set of cognitive processes--that is, strategies for accessing, constructing, and evaluating beliefs. The motivation to be accurate enhances use of those beliefs and strategies that are considered most appropriate, whereas the motivation to arrive at particular conclusions enhances use of those that are considered most likely to yield the desired conclusion. There is considerable evidence that people are more likely to arrive at conclusions that they want to arrive at, but their ability to do so is constrained by their ability to construct seemingly reasonable justifications for these conclusions. These ideas can account for a wide variety of research concerned with motivated reasoning.
To evaluate the reliability and validity of the PANAS (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988b) and provide normative data.
Cross-sectional and correlational.
The PANAS was administered to a non-clinical sample, broadly representative of the general adult UK population (N = 1,003). Competing models of the latent structure of the PANAS were evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. Regression and correlational analysis were used to determine the influence of demographic variables on PANAS scores as well as the relationship between the PANAS with measures of depression and anxiety (the HADS and the DASS).
The best-fitting model (robust comparative fit index = .94) of the latent structure of the PANAS consisted of two correlated factors corresponding to the PA and NA scales, and permitted correlated error between items drawn from the same mood subcategories (Zevon & Tellegen, 1982). Demographic variables had only very modest influences on PANAS scores and the PANAS exhibited measurement invariance across demographic subgroups. The reliability of the PANAS was high, and the pattern of relationships between the PANAS and the DASS and HADS were consistent with tripartite theory.
The PANAS is a reliable and valid measure of the constructs it was intended to assess, although the hypothesis of complete independence between PA and NA must be rejected. The utility of this measure is enhanced by the provision of large-scale normative data.
In this review, I examine the social psychological research on ostracism, social exclusion, and rejection. Being ignored, excluded, and/or rejected signals a threat for which reflexive detection in the form of pain and distress is adaptive for survival. Brief ostracism episodes result in sadness and anger and threaten fundamental needs. Individuals then act to fortify or replenish their thwarted need or needs. Behavioral consequences appear to be split into two general categories: attempts to fortify relational needs (belonging, self-esteem, shared understanding, and trust), which lead generally to prosocial thoughts and behaviors, or attempts to fortify efficacy/existence needs of control and recognition that may be dealt with most efficiently through antisocial thoughts and behaviors. Available research on chronic exposure to ostracism appears to deplete coping resources, resulting in depression and helplessness.
Superstitious beliefs among African Americans
- M Edu
Edu, M. (2014). Superstitious beliefs among African Americans. International Journal of
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Scarcity: Why having too little means so much
- S Mullainathan
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Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2013). Scarcity: Why having too little means so much. New
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- K Williams
Williams, K. (2007). Ostracism. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 425-452.