Fictitious conspiracy, paranormal, and pseudoscience beliefs are closely related to their regular counterparts

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21621411
AutoresSinan Alper (0000-0002-9051-0690, Yaşar University, autor de correspondencia), Tugcenaz Elcil (0000-0002-8948-4157, Dokuz Eylül University), Nazif Karaca (0000-0001-9976-9722, Yaşar University), Fatih Bayrak (0000-0001-6350-6234, Başkent University), Ozlem Yilmaz (0000-0002-6094-7162, Kadir Has University), Onurcan Yilmaz
Año2025
Volumen44
Número7
Páginas6376-6395
Fecha de publicación2025-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCurrent Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1046-1310 • E-ISSN: 1936-4733
EditorialSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12144-025-07654-w
OpenAlexW4408257415
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas41

Belief in various types of Epistemically Suspect Beliefs (ESBs), such as conspiracy theories, paranormal phenomena, and pseudoscientific claims, tends to strongly correlate. However, the use of ESB scales in the literature, which often include phenomena frequently encountered in daily life with familiar content, challenges the clarity of inferences about this relationship. To address this issue, we developed a scale for Fictitious Epistemically Suspect Beliefs (FESBs), composed entirely of novel and fabricated statements related to conspiracy, paranormal activity, and pseudoscience. In Study 1, with a Turkish sample of 448 participants, we found that FESBs positively correlated with ESBs, despite consisting of less familiar claims. Moreover, both FESBs and ESBs showed similar associations with individual differences in worldview and cognition. These findings were replicated in a larger Turkish sample ( N = 786) in Study 2, and a UK sample ( N = 746) in Study 3. The results indicate that individuals with higher ESBs are more likely to endorse FESBs, despite having never encountered these claims before

Paranormal · Pseudoscience · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs · Psychology · Social Psychology