Paranoid people may be more susceptible to believing conspiracy theories

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-01-26 11:01

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People who are paranoid are more likely than others to believe conspiracy theories, including antivax beliefs, according to UK scientists. They surveyed 1,000 people online, and found people who scored highly for paranoia were more likely to believe any conspiracy theories they were presented with, particularly in the case of theories that suggest sinister forces are intentionally causing harm to society or to the individual in question. And believing in one conspiracy theory meant people were more likely to believe others. Overall, taking the whole group of respondents into account, people were more likely to believe theories that suggested harm caused was accidental rather than intentional, and that the harms affected society as a whole, rather than just that particular person.