SynthesisFrontiers in psychology2019
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Psychological Research on Conspiracy Beliefs: Field Characteristics, Measurement Instruments, and Associations With Personality Traits.
Synthesis in Frontiers in psychology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Emotional pathways linking relative deprivation experiences to conspiracy beliefs: a mini-meta-analysis.BMC psychology · 2026Pooled it
- A taxonomy of anti-vaccination arguments from a systematic literature review and text modelling.Nature human behaviour · 2023Pooled it
- Contemporary trends in psychological research on conspiracy beliefs. A systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Summarising data and factors associated with COVID-19 related conspiracy theories in the first year of the pandemic: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.BMC psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs: A systematic review.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2022Pooled it
- Systematic review on the association of COVID-19-related conspiracy belief with infection-preventive behavior and vaccination willingness.BMC psychology · 2022Pooled it
- The hyper-systemizing hypothesis: how the tendency to systemize influences conspiracy beliefs and belief inflexibility in clinical and general populations.Cognitive processing · 2026Article
- Stability of Network Models Linking Personality to Conspiracy Mentality Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Europe's journal of psychology · 2026Article
- Evaluating the psychometric properties of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale: a Rasch modelling approach.Frontiers in psychology · 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
- Exploring the Relationship Between Conspiracy Theory Beliefs and Adherence to Government Guidelines During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Perceived Control and Trust in Social Media and Traditional Sources of Information.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Alternative theories of COVID-19: social dimensions and information sources.Journal of public health policy · 2025Review
- Neural correlates of conspiracy beliefs during information evaluation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- [Conspiracy theories, social polarization and crises].Der Nervenarzt · 2024Article
- Article
- "Trust me, do not trust anyone": how epistemic mistrust and credulity are associated with conspiracy mentality.Research in psychotherapy (Milano) · 2023Article
- Repetition could increase the perceived truth of conspiracy theories.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2023Article
- Alternative beliefs in psychedelic drug users.Scientific reports · 2023Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In the last decade, the number of investigations of the beliefs in conspiracy theories has begun to increase in the fields of social, differential, and experimental psychology. A considerable number of variables have been suggested as predictors of conspiracy beliefs, amongst them personality factors such as low agreeableness (as disagreeableness is associated with suspicion and antagonism) and high openness to experience (due to its positive association to seek out unusual and novel ideas). The association between agreeableness, openness to experience and conspiracy beliefs remains unclear in the literature. The present study reviews the literature of psychological studies investigating conspiracy beliefs. Additionally, the association between Big Five personality factors and conspiracy beliefs is analyzed meta-analytically using random-effects models. Ninety-six studies were identified for the systematic review. A comprehensive account of predictors, consequences, operationalization, questionnaires, and most prominent conspiracy theories is presented. For meta-analysis, 74 effect sizes from 13 studies were extracted. The psychological literature on predictors of conspiracy beliefs can be divided in approaches either with a pathological (e.g., paranoia) or socio-political focus (e.g., perceived powerlessness). Generally, there is a lack of theoretical frameworks in this young area of research. Meta-analysis revealed that agreeableness, openness to experience, and the remaining Big Five personality factors were not significantly associated with conspiracy beliefs if effect sizes are aggregated. Considerable heterogeneity in designs and operationalization characterizes the field. This article provides an overview of instrumentation, study designs, and current state of knowledge in an effort toward advancement and consensus in the study of conspiracy beliefs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.