The role of need for uniqueness in belief in conspiracy theories

"I know things they don't know!": The role of need for uniqueness in belief in conspiracy theories. Anthony Lantian et al. Social Psychology, May/June 2017, Pages 160-173, http://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/abs/10.1027/1864-9335/a000306

Abstract: In the current research, we investigated whether belief in conspiracy theories satisfies people's need for uniqueness. We found that the tendency to believe in conspiracy theories was associated with the feeling of possessing scarce information about the situations explained by the conspiracy theories (Study 1) and higher need for uniqueness (Study 2). Further two studies using two different manipulations of need for uniqueness (Studies 3 and 4) showed that people in a high need for uniqueness condition displayed higher conspiracy belief than people in a low need for uniqueness condition. This conclusion is strengthened by a small-scale meta-analysis. These studies suggest that conspiracy theories may serve people's desire to be unique, highlighting a motivational underpinning of conspiracy belief.




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Check also:

Imhoff, R., and Lamberty, P. K. (2017) Too special to be duped: Need for uniqueness motivates conspiracy beliefs. Eur. J. Soc. Psychol., doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2265, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.2265/full

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A Birther and a Truther: The Influence of the Authoritarian Personality on Conspiracy Beliefs. Sean Richey. Politics & Policy, June 2017, Pages 465-485, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/polp.12206/full