Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

I think self reported is the key here.

I find it interesting that people would admit to 'believing' a conspiracy theory (which I see as a negative). I suspect they mockingly call it a conspiracy theory while internally believing it to be consistent (but I have no evidence for this). They seem like interesting people to study. Shame I can't read the text.

* CIA using mind control studies on unwitting participants (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKUltra)

* A former US President conspired to try a putsch on the US Government on Jan 6th

* Russia is using Social Media farms to influence large scale of people (and that a lot of the degenerated political discourse in my home of Germany is fueled by it

* The German Secret Service (Verfassungsschutz) is deeply involved in the Murders of the NSU Terrorist Cell and itself infiltrated by right wing groups its supposed to protect us from

* The United States has Significant Data on UFOs that they are keeping from the people in Special Access Programs.

And so on. All of those were or are conspiracy Theories but they are either outright proven to have happened (first 3) or have significant evidence to back them up.

I am kinda doubtful those are the ones this study is concerned with though.

1. The government is involved in the murder of innocent citizens and/or well-known public figures, and keeps this a secret.

2. The power held by heads of state is second to that of small, unknown groups who really control world politics.

3. Secret organizations communicate with extraterrestrials, but keep this fact from the public.

4. The spread of certain viruses and/or diseases is the result of deliberate, concealed efforts of some organization.

5. Groups of scientists manipulate, fabricate or suppress evidence in order to deceive the public.

6. The government permits or perpetrates acts of terrorism on its own soil, disguising its involvement.

7. A small, secret group of people is responsible for making all major world decisions, such as going to war.

8. Evidence of alien contact is being concealed from the public.

9. Technology with mind-control capacities is used on people without their knowledge.

10. New and advanced technology, which would harm the current industry, is being suppressed.

11. The government uses people as patsies to hide its involvement in criminal activity.

12. Certain significant events have been the result of the activity of a small group who secretly manipulate world events.

13. Some UFO sightings and rumors are planned or staged in order to distract the public from real alien contact.

14. Experiments involving new drugs or technologies are routinely carried out on the public without their knowledge or consent.

15. A lot of important information is deliberately concealed from the public out of self-interest.