ArticleJournal of personality2026
Priming Need-Frustrating Memories Sparks Conspiracy Beliefs: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective.
Article in Journal of personality, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Priming Need-Frustrating Memories Sparks Conspiracy Beliefs: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective.Journal of personality · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveMemories shape perceptions and decisions in uncertain situations through their encoded levels of autonomy, competence, and relatedness satisfaction or frustration. This research investigated their predictive value on COVID-19 conspiracy theories endorsement, when triggered by freedom-restrictive contexts.
methodStudy 1 (N = 141) randomly exposed participants to a control, moderate, or high freedom-restrictive vignette before describing a memory. Participants reported their endorsement of COVID-19 conspiracy theories a week later. Study 2 (N = 213) asked participants to describe a memory after reading a freedom-restrictive vignette. A week later, a yoked control design randomly assigned participants to either be primed with their own memory or with someone else's memory before reacting to a bogus conspiracy theory.
resultsStudy 1 revealed a predictive association specifically between autonomy-frustrating memories triggered by freedom-restrictive vignettes and COVID-19 conspiracy theories endorsement. Study 2 showed that priming autonomy-frustrating memories situationally increased the likelihood of endorsing a bogus conspiracy theory, becoming angered by it, and expressing willingness to disseminate it, compared to a non-primed group and a group primed with autonomy-satisfying memories.
conclusionsThis research highlights the role of autonomy-frustrating memories in endorsing conspiracy theories, suggesting that such endorsement can emerge from the interplay between the individual (memories) and the environment (triggering cues).
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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.