I Know Things They Don't Know

The Role of Need for Uniqueness in Belief in Conspiracy Theories

Bibliographic Data

ID5338650
AuthorsAnthony Lantian (0000-0001-7855-3914, Université Grenoble Alpes), Dominique Muller (0000-0001-9544-5317, Université Grenoble Alpes), Cécile Nurra (0000-0001-6830-8851, Université Grenoble Alpes), Karen M Douglas (0000-0002-0381-6924, University of Kent)
Year2017
Volume48
Issue3
Pages160-173
Publication date2017-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1864-9335 • E-ISSN: 2151-2590
PublisherHogrefe Verlag (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1027/1864-9335/a000306
OpenAlexW2735482984
LanguageEN
Citations received69
References cited76

In the current research, we investigated whether belief in conspiracy theories satisfies people's need for uniqueness. We found that the tendency to believe in conspiracy theories was associated with the feeling of possessing scarce information about the situations explained by the conspiracy theories (Study 1) and higher need for uniqueness (Study 2). Further two studies using two different manipulations of need for uniqueness (Studies 3 and 4) showed that people in a high need for uniqueness condition displayed higher conspiracy belief than people in a low need for uniqueness condition. This conclusion is strengthened by a small-scale meta-analysis. These studies suggest that conspiracy theories may serve people's desire to be unique, highlighting a motivational underpinning of conspiracy belief

Feeling · Uniqueness · Media Influence and Health · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access