The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories and Societal Challenges

Natural disasters have threatened human societies throughout history, however, their psychological effects on people are not fully understood. We hypothesized that natural disaster risk and lack of coping capacity are positively related to conspiracy beliefs and tested these relationships across three studies. Study 1 analyzed a global dataset (47,816 participants; 67 countries) and found support for the positive relationships between natural disaster risk, lack of coping capacity, and conspiracy beliefs. Study 2 (preregistered; N = 400) manipulated natural disaster risk, yielding the predicted effect on conspiracy beliefs. Study 3 (preregistered; N = 451) introduced an additional manipulation of coping capacity. The results supported our hypothesis that high natural disaster risk predicted increased conspiracy beliefs especially when coping capacity was low. Overall, the findings suggest that improving coping capacity might be effective for governments to reduce people's conspiracy beliefs in the context of natural disasters. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) evolves, conspiracy theories have emerged that authorities will use AI to oppress humanity, or AI itself will. We propose that perceived high autonomy and low interdependence of AI increase AI-related conspiracy beliefs. Four studies (total N = 1,897) have examined this line of reasoning. Study 1 (N = 300) supported the hypotheses in a correlational survey. Studies 2 (N = 400) and 3 (pre-registered; N = 400) manipulated autonomy and interdependence of AI in experiments. Both studies found that higher autonomy and lower interdependence increased AI-related conspiracy beliefs, while perceived threat to society mediated these effects in most cases. Study 4 (pre-registered) replicated findings from Study 2 in the US (N = 400) and China (N = 397) and found cultural differences in AI-related conspiracy beliefs. These findings illuminate how the perceived properties of AI contribute to AI-related conspiracy beliefs. Chapter 4 examined the impact of conspiracy beliefs on distributive justice perceptions. The meritocracy principle, along with other distributive justice principles such as equality and need, is fundamental to the healthy functioning of modern societies. However, our understanding of the factors that shape citizens’ perceptions of these principles remains limited. We proposed that conspiracy beliefs are negatively related to distributive perceptions and tested these relationships in four studies. Study 1 analyzed a global dataset (90,837 participants; 68 societies) and identified a negative relationship between conspiracy beliefs and meritocracy perceptions. Study 2a (preregistered; N = 403; US) and Study 2b (preregistered; N = 788; China) manipulated conspiracy beliefs in societal settings. Conspiracy beliefs consistently reduced perceptions of meritocracy, perceived equality, and need principles. Study 3 (preregistered; N = 403) replicated these results in a hypothetical organizational setting. These findings suggest that conspiracy beliefs reduce citizens' perceived fairness of resource allocations across different distributive justice rules. It is unclear when people tend to anthropomorphize Artificial Intelligence (AI). One trigger could be a perception of uncertainty or threat fueled by conspiracy theories. We propose that exposure to AI-related conspiracy theories increases anthropomorphism of AI. Four pre-registered experiments (total N = 2,201) examined this. We manipulated exposure to AI-related conspiracy theories across specific AI applications—including social media, predictive policing, and health—as well as through a general description of AI. Although the relationship between AI-related conspiracy theories and anthropomorphism of AI was non-significant in Study 1, the hypothesis received support in subsequent studies. A mini meta-analysis using current data also revealed a significant effect. In Study 4, the manipulation’s effects persisted even after interactions with AI. Moreover, participants used more personal pronouns in their interactions with AI after being exposed to conspiracy theories. These studies underscored far-reaching implications for society and provided a framework for future research.