Brotherton Robert, French Christopher C
Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2015 May 13;10(5):e0124125. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0124125. eCollection 2015.
Conspiracist beliefs are widespread and potentially hazardous. A growing body of research suggests that cognitive biases may play a role in endorsement of conspiracy theories. The current research examines the novel hypothesis that individuals who are biased towards inferring intentional explanations for ambiguous actions are more likely to endorse conspiracy theories, which portray events as the exclusive product of intentional agency. Study 1 replicated a previously observed relationship between conspiracist ideation and individual differences in anthropomorphisation. Studies 2 and 3 report a relationship between conspiracism and inferences of intentionality for imagined ambiguous events. Additionally, Study 3 again found conspiracist ideation to be predicted by individual differences in anthropomorphism. Contrary to expectations, however, the relationship was not mediated by the intentionality bias. The findings are discussed in terms of a domain-general intentionality bias making conspiracy theories appear particularly plausible. Alternative explanations are suggested for the association between conspiracism and anthropomorphism.
阴谋论信仰广泛存在且可能具有危害性。越来越多的研究表明，认知偏差可能在对阴谋论的认同中起作用。当前的研究检验了一个新假设，即倾向于为模糊行为推断出有意解释的个体更有可能认同阴谋论，阴谋论将事件描绘为有意行为的唯一产物。研究1重复了之前观察到的阴谋论思维与拟人化方面个体差异之间的关系。研究2和3报告了阴谋论与对想象中的模糊事件的意图推断之间的关系。此外，研究3再次发现拟人化方面的个体差异可预测阴谋论思维。然而，与预期相反，这种关系并非由意图偏差所介导。研究结果从一种领域通用的意图偏差角度进行了讨论，这种偏差使阴谋论显得特别可信。针对阴谋论与拟人化之间的关联提出了其他解释。
