What they don’t tell you about conspiracy theories

Genius-driven science and informal science communication predict susceptibility to conspiracy beliefs

Bibliographic Data

ID21625930
AuthorsMichele d’Errico (0009-0005-1826-4439, Trinity College Dublin, corresponding author), Taha Yasseri (0000-0002-1800-6094, University College Dublin)
Year2026
Volume45
Issue12
Publication date2026-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurrent Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1046-1310 • E-ISSN: 1936-4733
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12144-026-09660-y
OpenAlexW7165618507
LanguageEN
References cited55

Conspiracy theorists often present themselves as heroic outsiders fighting a corrupt establishment. Similarly, pop-science media frequently frames scientific progress as a hero’s journey: in the beginning, everyone is wrong and blinded by prejudice; then a genius arrives with the exact solution; this is mocked until everyone realizes he was right from the beginning. We propose that individuals who acquire science information informally (e.g., from movies, documentaries, podcasts) are more likely to hold this genius-driven conception of science, which in turn is associated to conspiracy beliefs: by valorizing the maverick over collective scientific consensus, a genius-driven worldview primes individuals to trust actors who present themselves as isolated from the mainstream scientific community, allowing conspiracy influencers to gain credibility by tapping into this pre-existing trope about science. In this study, we explored whether a genius mentality and informal science communication are associated with conspiracy beliefs, and whether these factors can illuminate the complex relationships between conspiracy beliefs and measures of trust in science and formal education. To evaluate this, we administered aquestionnaire to 843 U.S. residents and conducted a cross-sectional analysis. Genius mentality and informal science significantly predicted higher conspiracy belief. Genius mentality moderated the relationship between trust in science and conspiracy belief. Informal science moderated the relationship between education and genius mentality. These preliminary findings suggest that specific culturally acquired conceptions of how science works are relevant to the acceptance of conspiracy beliefs, and that future research should place greater emphasis on analyzing how common cultural tropes reinforce unwarranted epistemological practices

Credibility · Genius · Influencer marketing · Mainstream · Popular science · Science communication · Science education · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment

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Open DOIOpen Access