VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Br J Psychol. 2022 Feb;113(1):25-48. doi: 10.1111/bjop.12522. Epub 2021 Jul 14.
Many citizens around the globe believe conspiracy theories. Why are conspiracy theories so appealing? Here, we propose that conspiracy theories elicit intense emotions independent of emotional valence. People therefore find conspiracy theories entertaining - that is, narratives that people perceive as interesting, exciting, and attention-grabbing - and such entertainment appraisals are positively associated with belief in them. Five studies supported these ideas. Participants were exposed to either a conspiratorial or a non-conspiratorial text about the Notre Dame fire (Study 1) or the death of Jeffrey Epstein (preregistered Study 2). The conspiratorial text elicited stronger entertainment appraisals and intense emotions (independent of emotional valence) than the non-conspiratorial text; moreover, entertainment appraisals mediated the effects of the manipulation on conspiracy beliefs. Study 3 indicated that participants endorsed stronger conspiracy beliefs when an election event was described in an entertaining rather than a boring manner. Subsequent findings revealed that both organisational (Study 4) and societal conspiracy beliefs (Study 5) are positively associated with sensation seeking - a trait characterised by a preference for exciting and intense experiences. We conclude that one reason why people believe conspiracy theories is because they find them entertaining.
全球许多公民都相信阴谋论。为什么阴谋论如此吸引人？在这里，我们提出阴谋论会引起强烈的情绪，而不受情绪的影响。因此，人们认为阴谋论很有趣——也就是说，人们认为有趣、令人兴奋和引人注目的叙述——而这种娱乐评价与对它们的信仰呈正相关。五项研究支持了这些观点。参与者接触到关于巴黎圣母院火灾（研究 1）或杰弗里·爱泼斯坦死亡（预先注册研究 2）的阴谋论或非阴谋论文本。与非阴谋论文本相比，阴谋论文本引起了更强的娱乐评价和强烈的情绪（不考虑情绪）；此外，娱乐评价中介了操纵对阴谋信仰的影响。研究 3 表明，当选举事件以有趣的而不是无聊的方式描述时，参与者更倾向于支持阴谋论。随后的研究结果表明，组织（研究 4）和社会阴谋信念（研究 5）与寻求刺激呈正相关——这种特质的特点是喜欢令人兴奋和强烈的体验。我们的结论是，人们相信阴谋论的一个原因是因为他们觉得它们很有趣。
