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

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21621411
AutoresSinan Alper (0000-0002-9051-0690, Yaşar University, autor correspondente), 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
Ano2025
Volume44
Fascículo7
Páginas6376-6395
Data de publicação2025-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCurrent Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1046-1310 • E-ISSN: 1936-4733
EditoraSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12144-025-07654-w
OpenAlexW4408257415
IdiomaEN
Referências 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