ArticleFrontiers in psychology2013
Conspiracy theories as quasi-religious mentality: an integrated account from cognitive science, social representations theory, and frame theory.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring the associations of generalized trust, climate change conspiracy beliefs and freecycling: Empirical evidence from 34 cultures.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2026Article
- Leave the world(view) behind, but keep the words: The effect of conspiracism on writing.PloS one · 2026Article
- Beyond deficit and coexistence: Modeling the knowledge-conspiracy-mistrust configuration in public understanding of science.PloS one · 2026Article
- Article
- Constructing unverifiable reality: a qualitative study of the prison planet conspiracy hypothesis on YouTube.Frontiers in sociology · 2025Article
- Toward a Cultural Psychology of Conspiracy Theories: A life-narrative analysis of Flat Earthers.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2024Article
- Just world beliefs, personal success and beliefs in conspiracy theories.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2023Article
- [Conspiracy as a surrogate for religion? Religiosity, spirituality, and affinity towards conspiracy myths in times of crisis].Zeitschrift fur Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik · 2022Article
- Interconnectedness and (in)coherence as a signature of conspiracy worldviews.Science advances · 2022Article
- Network analysis of the relationships between conspiracy beliefs towards COVID-19 vaccine and symptoms of fear of COVID-19 in a sample of latin american countries.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2022Article
- LOCO: The 88-million-word language of conspiracy corpus.Behavior research methods · 2022Article
- Conspiracy claims and secret intentions as predictors of psychological coping and vaccine uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of psychiatric research · 2022Article
- COVID-19 conspiracy ideation is associated with the delusion proneness trait and resistance to update of beliefs.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Does religion predict coronavirus conspiracy beliefs? Centrality of religiosity, religious fundamentalism, and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs.Personality and individual differences · 2022Article
- What Is the Support for Conspiracy Beliefs About COVID-19 Vaccines in Latin America? A Prospective Exploratory Study in 13 Countries.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Profiles in conspiracism: Associations with two psychiatric syndromes, religiosity and pandemic-related health behaviors.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Motivation to participate in secondary science communication.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Vaccine hesitancy and religiosity in a sample of university students in Venezuela.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2021Article
- The Paradox of Conspiracy Theory: The Positive Impact of Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories on Preventive Actions and Vaccination Intentions during the COVID-19 Pandemic.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic and the search for structure: Social media and conspiracy theories.Social and personality psychology compass · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Conspiracy theories (CTs) can take many forms and vary widely in popularity, the intensity with which they are believed and their effects on individual and collective behavior. An integrated account of CTs thus needs to explain how they come to appeal to potential believers, how they spread from one person to the next via communication, and how they motivate collective action. We summarize these aspects under the labels of stick, spread, and action. We propose the quasi-religious hypothesis for CTs: drawing on cognitive science of religion, social representations theory, and frame theory. We use cognitive science of religion to describe the main features of the content of CTs that explain how they come to stick: CTs are quasi-religious representations in that their contents, forms and functions parallel those found in beliefs of institutionalized religions. However, CTs are quasi-religious in that CTs and the communities that support them, lack many of the institutional features of organized religions. We use social representations theory to explain how CTs spread as devices for making sense of sudden events that threaten existing worldviews. CTs allow laypersons to interpret such events by relating them to common sense, thereby defusing some of the anxiety that those events generate. We use frame theory to explain how some, but not all CTs mobilize collective counter-conspiratorial action by identifying a target and by proposing credible and concrete rationales for action. We specify our integrated account in 13 propositions.
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