Schnell Tatjana, Viviani Roberto, Lenz Claudia, Krampe Henning
University of Innsbruck, Institute of Psychology, Existential Psychology Lab, Innsbruck, Austria.
MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Social Sciences, Oslo, Norway.
Heliyon. 2024 Jul 14;10(14):e34557. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e34557. eCollection 2024 Jul 30.
Conspiracy theory belief - explaining the ultimate causes of social and political events with claims of secret conspiracies - is assumed to arise from a desire to make sense of uncertainty, especially in times of crisis. However, there is no compelling evidence that conspiracy theory belief actually fulfils this function, particularly in terms of evaluating one's life as meaningful. We posit that the adoption of conspiracy theory belief can be explained as a when a more proximal source of meaning, a sense of belonging to society, is threatened. Thus, a positive association between conspiracy theory belief and meaningfulness should emerge when people feel alienated from society. We therefore tested the hypotheses that alienation from society correlates negatively with meaningfulness (H1), and that it moderates the relationship between conspiracy theory belief and meaningfulness (H2).
Conspiracy theory belief related to the COVID-19 pandemic, meaningfulness (Meaning and Purpose Scales, MAPS), and perceived alienation from society were assessed in a representative sample of N = 974 German residents.
As expected, alienation from society was inversely related to meaningfulness and moderated the relationship between conspiracy theory belief and meaningfulness. According to the interaction, a positive association between belief in conspiracy theory and meaningfulness emerged when individuals experienced themselves as alienated from society.
The results suggest that conspiracy theory belief might alleviate a lack of meaningfulness caused by experienced alienation from society. Individuals who felt discriminated against, treated unequally, or having their rights restricted were more likely to hold conspiracy theory belief, which was associated with a greater sense of meaning in their lives.
阴谋论信念——用秘密阴谋的说法来解释社会和政治事件的最终原因——被认为源于人们想要理解不确定性的愿望，尤其是在危机时期。然而，没有确凿的证据表明阴谋论信念实际上履行了这一功能，特别是在评估一个人的生活是否有意义方面。我们认为，当一个更直接的意义来源，即社会归属感受到威胁时，阴谋论信念的形成可以得到解释。因此，当人们感到与社会疏离时，阴谋论信念与意义感之间应该会出现正相关。因此，我们检验了以下假设：与社会的疏离与意义感呈负相关（假设1），并且它调节了阴谋论信念与意义感之间的关系（假设2）。
在一个由N = 974名德国居民组成的代表性样本中，评估了与新冠疫情相关的阴谋论信念、意义感（意义与目的量表，MAPS）以及感知到的与社会的疏离感。
正如预期的那样，与社会的疏离与意义感呈负相关，并调节了阴谋论信念与意义感之间的关系。根据这种相互作用，当个体感到自己与社会疏离时，阴谋论信念与意义感之间出现了正相关。
结果表明，阴谋论信念可能会缓解因感受到与社会疏离而导致的意义缺失。那些感到受到歧视、待遇不平等或权利受到限制的个体更有可能持有阴谋论信念，这与他们生活中更强的意义感相关。
