Consequences of conspiracy theories

Project Information

CONSPIRACY_FX

Grant agreement ID: 101018262

DOI

10.3030/101018262

EC signature date 28 June 2021

Start date 1 January 2022

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 2 499 185,00

EU contribution

€ 2 499 185,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF KENT
United Kingdom

CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.

Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .

Publications

Peer reviewed articles (23)

Extreme weather event attribution predicts climate policy support across the world

Author(s): Viktoria Cologna, Simona Meiler, Chahan M. Kropf, Samuel Lüthi, Niels G. Mede, David N. Bresch, Oscar Lecuona, Sebastian Berger, John Besley, Cameron Brick, Marina Joubert, Edward W. Maibach, Sabina Mihelj, Naomi Oreskes, Mike S. Schäfer, Sander van der Linden, null null, Nor Izzatina Abdul Aziz, Suleiman Abdulsalam, Nurulaini Abu Shamsi, Balazs Aczel, Indro Adinugroho, Eleonora Alabrese, Alaa A
Published in: Nature Climate Change, 2025, ISSN 1758-678X
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02372-4

Engaging with Conspiracy Believers

Author(s): Karen M. Douglas, Robbie M. Sutton, Mikey Biddlestone, Ricky Green, Daniel Toribio-Flórez
Published in: Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 2024, ISSN 1878-5166
Publisher: Springer
DOI: 10.1007/s13164-024-00741-0

Science under suspicion: Antecedents and consequences of science-related conspiracy beliefs

Author(s): Karen M Douglas
Published in: Current Opinion in Psychology, 2025, ISSN 2352-2518
Publisher: Elsevier BV

Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries

Author(s): Viktoria Cologna, Niels G. Mede, Sebastian Berger, John Besley, Cameron Brick, Marina Joubert, Edward W. Maibach, Sabina Mihelj, Naomi Oreskes, Mike S. Schäfer, Sander van der Linden, Nor Izzatina Abdul Aziz, Suleiman Abdulsalam, Nurulaini Abu Shamsi, Balazs Aczel, Indro Adinugroho, Eleonora Alabrese, Alaa Aldoh, Mark Alfano, Innocent Mbulli Ali, Mohammed Alsobay, Marlene Altenmüller, R. Michael
Published in: Nature Human Behaviour, 2025, ISSN 2397-3374
Publisher: Nature
DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-02090-5

Identifying important individual- and country-level predictors of conspiracy theorizing: A machine-learning analysis

Author(s): Karen M. Douglas, Robbie M. Sutton, Caspar J. Van Lissa, Wolfgang Stroebe, Jannis Kreienkamp, Maximilian Agostini, Jocelyn J. Bélanger, Ben Gützkow, Georgios Abakoumkin, Jamilah Hanum Abdul Khaiyom, Vjollca Ahmedi, Handan Akkas, Carlos A. Almenara, Mohsin Atta, Sabahat Cigdem Bagci, Sima Basel, Edona Berisha Kida, Allan B. I. Bernardo, Nicholas R. Buttrick, Phatthanakit Chobthamkit, Hoon-Seok Ch
Published in: European Journal of Social Psychology, Issue 53, 2023, Page(s) 1191-1203, ISSN 0046-2772
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2968

Political communication and conspiracy theory sharing on twitter

Author(s): Imane Khaouja, Daniel Toribio-Flórez, Ricky Green, Cassidy Rowden, Chee Siang Ang, Karen M. Douglas
Published in: Online Social Networks and Media, Issue 47, 2025, Page(s) 100313, ISSN 2468-6964
Publisher: Elsevier BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.osnem.2025.100313

The Appraisal Model of Conspiracy Theories (AMCT): Highlighting Core Concepts and Potential Extensions

Author(s): Lotte Pummerer, Theofilos Gkinopoulos, Karen M. Douglas, Daniel Jolley, Kai Sassenberg
Published in: Psychological Inquiry, Issue 35, 2025, Page(s) 233-242, ISSN 1047-840X
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
DOI: 10.1080/1047840x.2025.2454118

Rabbit Hole Syndrome: Inadvertent, accelerating, and entrenched commitment to conspiracy beliefs

Author(s): Robbie M. Sutton; Karen M. Douglas
Published in: Current Opinion in Psychology, Issue 48, 2022, Page(s) 101462, ISSN 2352-250X
Publisher: Elsevier Limited
DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101462

Making an impression: The effects of sharing conspiracy theories

Author(s): Ricky Green; Daniel Toribio-Flórez; Karen M. Douglas; James W. Brunkow; Robbie M. Sutton
Published in: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Issue 104, 2023, Page(s) 104398, ISSN 0022-1031
Publisher: Academic Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104398

Fighting fire with fire: Prebunking with the use of a plausible meta-conspiracy framing

Author(s): Mikey Biddlestone, Ricky Green, Daniel Toribio-Flórez, Dylan de Gourville, Robbie M. Sutton, Karen M. Douglas
Published in: British Journal of Psychology, 2025, ISSN 2044-8295
Publisher: Wiley

Does Belief in Conspiracy Theories Affect Interpersonal Relationships?

Author(s): Daniel Toribio-Flórez; Ricky Green; Robbie M. Sutton; Karen M. Douglas
Published in: Spanish Journal of Psychology, Issue 26, 2023, Page(s) e9, ISSN 1988-2904
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
DOI: 10.1017/sjp.2023.8

The Appraisal Model of Conspiracy Theories (AMCT): Applying Appraisal Theories to Understand Emotional and Behavioral Reactions to Conspiracy Theories

Author(s): Lotte Pummerer, Theofilos Gkinopoulos, Karen M. Douglas, Daniel Jolley, Kai Sassenberg
Published in: Psychological Inquiry, Issue 35, 2025, Page(s) 159-178, ISSN 1047-840X
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
DOI: 10.1080/1047840x.2024.2442906

Reasons to believe: A systematic review and meta-analytic synthesis of the motives associated with conspiracy beliefs.

Author(s): Mikey Biddlestone, Ricky Green, Karen M. Douglas, Flávio Azevedo, Robbie M. Sutton, Aleksandra Cichocka
Published in: Psychological Bulletin, Issue 151, 2025, Page(s) 48-87, ISSN 0033-2909
Publisher: American Psychological Association
DOI: 10.1037/bul0000463

What are conspiracy theories? A definitional approach to their correlates, consequences and communication

Author(s): Karen M. Douglas, Robbie M. Sutton
Published in: Annual Review of Psychology, Issue 74, 2023, ISSN 0066-4308
Publisher: Annual Reviews, Inc.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-032420-031329

Stronger Conspiracy Beliefs Are Associated With a Stronger Tendency to Act Dishonestly and an Overestimation of Others’ Dishonesty

Author(s): Sinan Alper, Daniel Toribio-Flórez, Valerio Capraro, Karen M. Douglas
Published in: Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2025, ISSN 1948-5506
Publisher: Sage Periodicals Press
DOI: 10.1177/19485506241302878

Belief in conspiracy theories and satisfaction in interpersonal relationships

Author(s): Daniel Toribio‐Flórez, Ricky Green, Karen M. Douglas
Published in: Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Issue 54, 2025, Page(s) 603-627, ISSN 0021-9029
Publisher: V.H. Winston and Sons, Inc.
DOI: 10.1111/jasp.13061

Perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes in 68 countries – the TISP dataset

Author(s): Niels G. Mede, Viktoria Cologna, Sebastian Berger, John Besley, Cameron Brick, Marina Joubert, Edward W. Maibach, Sabina Mihelj, Naomi Oreskes, Mike S. Schäfer, Sander van der Linden, Nor Izzatina Abdul Aziz, Suleiman Abdulsalam, Nurulaini Abu Shamsi, Balazs Aczel, Indro Adinugroho, Eleonora Alabrese, Alaa Aldoh, Mark Alfano, Innocent Mbulli Ali, Mohammed Alsobay, Marlene Altenmüller, R. Michael
Published in: Scientific Data, Issue 12, 2025, ISSN 2052-4463
Publisher: Nature
DOI: 10.1038/s41597-024-04100-7

Denialist vs warmist climate change conspiracy beliefs: Ideological roots, psychological correlates, and environmental implications

Author(s): Dylan De Gourville, Karen M. Douglas, Robbie M. Sutton
Published in: British Journal of Psychology, 2025, ISSN 2044-8295
Publisher: Wiley

Impressions of science and healthcare professionals who share anti-science conspiracy theories

Author(s): Ricky Green, Daniel Toribio-Flórez, Karen M. Douglas
Published in: Routledge Open, Issue 2, 2023, Page(s) 37, ISSN 2755-1245
Publisher: Routledge
DOI: 10.12688/routledgeopenres.17965.1

Conspiracy theories about local political issues

Author(s): Karen Douglas, Ricky Green, Daniel Toribio-Flórez, Mikey Biddlestone, Dylan De Gourville, Cassidy Rowden
Published in: Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 2025, ISSN 1099-1298
Publisher: Wiley

A synthesis of evidence for policy from behavioural science during COVID-19

Author(s): Ruggeri, K., Stock, F., Haslam, S.A., Capraro, V., Boggio, P., Ellemers, N., Cichocka, A., Douglas, K. M., Rand, D. G., van der Linden, S., Cikara, M., Finkel, E. J., Druckman, J. N., Wohl, M. J. A., Petty, R. E., Tucker, J. A., Shariff, A., Gelfand, M., Packer, D., Jetten, J., Van Lange, P. A. M., Pennycook, G., Peters, E., Baicker, K., Crum, A., Weeden, K. A., Napper, L. E., Tabri, N., Zaki, J.,
Published in: Nature, Issue 625, 2024, Page(s) 134-147, ISSN 0028-0836
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06840-9

The impact of generative artificial intelligence on socioeconomic inequalities and policymaking

Author(s): Valerio Capraro, Austin Lentsch, Daron Acemoglu, Selin Akgun, Aisel Akhmedova, Ennio Bilancini, Jean-François Bonnefon, Pablo Brañas-Garza, Luigi Butera, Karen M. Douglas, Jim A. C. Everett, Gerd Gigerenzer, Christine Greenhow, Daniel A. Hashimoto, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Jolanda Jetten, Simon Johnson, Werner H. Kunz, Chiara Longoni, Pete Lunn, Simone Natale, Stefanie Paluch, Iyad Rahwan, Neil Se
Published in: PNAS Nexus, 2024, ISSN 2752-6542
Publisher: Oxford Academic
DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae191

Victims of Conspiracies? An Examination of the Relationship Between Conspiracy Beliefs and Dispositional Individual Victimhood

Author(s): Daniel Toribio‐Flórez, Marlene S. Altenmüller, Karen M. Douglas, Mario Gollwitzer, Indro Adinugroho, Mark Alfano, Denisa Apriliawati, Flavio Azevedo, Cornelia Betsch, Olga Białobrzeska, Amélie Bret, André Calero Valdez, Viktoria Cologna, Gabriela Czarnek, Sylvain Delouvée, Kimberly C. Doell, Simone Dohle, Dmitrii Dubrov, Małgorzata Dzimińska, Christian T. Elbaek, Matthew Facciani, Antoin
Published in: European Journal of Social Psychology, 2025, ISSN 0046-2772
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.70008

Book chapters (2)

Conspiracy beliefs and interpersonal relationships

Author(s): Karen M. Douglas, Ricky Green, Daniel Toribio-Flórez, Lea Kamitz, Cassidy Rowden, Mikey Biddlestone, Dylan De Gourville
Published in: The psychology of false beliefs: Collective delusions and conspiracy theories, 2025
Publisher: Routledge

The social psychology of conspiracy theories: Key insights and future challenges

Author(s): Karen M. Douglas, Robbie M. Sutton
Published in: Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2025, Page(s) 1-68, ISSN 1557-8410
Publisher: Elsevier
DOI: 10.1016/bs.aesp.2024.10.004

Other (1)

Conspiracy theories: Their propagation and links to political violence

Author(s): Ricky Green, Imane Khaouja, Daniel Toribio-Flórez, Karen M. Douglas
Published in: CREST Security Review, 2023, ISSN 2398-0559
Publisher: CREST