Evil perceptions but not entertainment value appraisals relate to conspiracy beliefs
The current research examined whether the perception of evil intentions by the conspirators influences conspiracy beliefs about particular narratives. Study 1 manipulated texts describing the death of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to be either low or high in conspiratorial information. Stud...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Social Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsps.2024.1350584/full |
| _version_ | 1797248703806832640 |
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| author | Eddie Harmon-Jones Kinga Szymaniak Dominic Edgeworth Gabriel Sebban Cindy Harmon-Jones |
| author_facet | Eddie Harmon-Jones Kinga Szymaniak Dominic Edgeworth Gabriel Sebban Cindy Harmon-Jones |
| author_sort | Eddie Harmon-Jones |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The current research examined whether the perception of evil intentions by the conspirators influences conspiracy beliefs about particular narratives. Study 1 manipulated texts describing the death of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to be either low or high in conspiratorial information. Studies 2 and 3 manipulated texts describing a fictional country's election to be either low or high in antagonism. The studies revealed that the conspiratorial/antagonistic texts increased evil perceptions and conspiracy beliefs. Moreover, they revealed that perceptions of evil mediated the effect of the text condition on conspiracy beliefs. Although the studies found that the conspiratorial/antagonistic texts increased entertainment value appraisals, they did not find evidence of entertainment value mediating the effect of text condition on conspiracy beliefs. These latter results do not replicate those of van Prooijen et al. (2022). The novel results with evil perceptions suggest that perceiving that the conspirators acted with evil intentions may increase conspiracy beliefs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T20:18:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b787f22ab98f4ee0a5158286d848bb49 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2813-7876 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T20:18:48Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Social Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-b787f22ab98f4ee0a5158286d848bb492024-03-22T12:34:50ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Social Psychology2813-78762024-03-01210.3389/frsps.2024.13505841350584Evil perceptions but not entertainment value appraisals relate to conspiracy beliefsEddie Harmon-Jones0Kinga Szymaniak1Dominic Edgeworth2Gabriel Sebban3Cindy Harmon-Jones4School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaSchool of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaSchool of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaSchool of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaSchool of Psychology, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, AustraliaThe current research examined whether the perception of evil intentions by the conspirators influences conspiracy beliefs about particular narratives. Study 1 manipulated texts describing the death of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to be either low or high in conspiratorial information. Studies 2 and 3 manipulated texts describing a fictional country's election to be either low or high in antagonism. The studies revealed that the conspiratorial/antagonistic texts increased evil perceptions and conspiracy beliefs. Moreover, they revealed that perceptions of evil mediated the effect of the text condition on conspiracy beliefs. Although the studies found that the conspiratorial/antagonistic texts increased entertainment value appraisals, they did not find evidence of entertainment value mediating the effect of text condition on conspiracy beliefs. These latter results do not replicate those of van Prooijen et al. (2022). The novel results with evil perceptions suggest that perceiving that the conspirators acted with evil intentions may increase conspiracy beliefs.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsps.2024.1350584/fullperception of evilconspiracy theoriesconspiracy beliefsentertainment valuehostile attribution |
| spellingShingle | Eddie Harmon-Jones Kinga Szymaniak Dominic Edgeworth Gabriel Sebban Cindy Harmon-Jones Evil perceptions but not entertainment value appraisals relate to conspiracy beliefs Frontiers in Social Psychology perception of evil conspiracy theories conspiracy beliefs entertainment value hostile attribution |
| title | Evil perceptions but not entertainment value appraisals relate to conspiracy beliefs |
| title_full | Evil perceptions but not entertainment value appraisals relate to conspiracy beliefs |
| title_fullStr | Evil perceptions but not entertainment value appraisals relate to conspiracy beliefs |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evil perceptions but not entertainment value appraisals relate to conspiracy beliefs |
| title_short | Evil perceptions but not entertainment value appraisals relate to conspiracy beliefs |
| title_sort | evil perceptions but not entertainment value appraisals relate to conspiracy beliefs |
| topic | perception of evil conspiracy theories conspiracy beliefs entertainment value hostile attribution |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsps.2024.1350584/full |
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