Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs • Hacker News Board

Re: Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

#21

Post by temppppp » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 11:32 AM UTC

> In Samples 1, 3, and 4, participants were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk)...

Well that really puts doubt in ny mind. Did they at least use a good method to get a realistic sample for Sample 2? >In Sample 2, par- ticipants were undergraduates enrolled in an introductory psychology course at a private university in the southeast. The same procedures were followed to ensure data quality in Sample 2...

Nope.

>We examined the associations between conspiracy beliefs, on the one hand, and self-reported personality traits...

I will say they were reasonably clear about the limitations, but they did proceed to imply conclusons regardless. No conclusions should be drawn from this study.

Re: Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

#22

Post by gadders » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 11:32 AM UTC

bondarchuk wrote: post #10

bondarchuk wrote: post #6

They use these three questionnaires: Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (BCTI; Swami et al., 2011) Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS; Brotherton et al., 2013) Vaccine Conspiracy Theories Scale (VCBS; Shapiro et al., 2016) The first one is here in table 4: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5322923/ The second one is here in the appendix: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/1…

The VCBS: Vaccine safety data is often fabricated. Immunizing children is harmful and this fact is covered up. Pharmaceutical companies cover up the dangers of vaccines. People are deceived about vaccine efficacy. Vaccine efficacy data is often fabricated. People are deceived about vaccine safety. The government is trying to cover up the link between vaccines and autism.

>> Pharmaceutical companies cover up the dangers of vaccines. >> People are deceived about vaccine efficacy. >> Vaccine efficacy data is often fabricated.

Not in every case, but I would certainly argue it could have happened.

Re: Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

#23

Post by kombookcha » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 11:33 AM UTC

dtx1 wrote: post #7

dazzawazza wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cross-sectional relations between self-reported conspiratorial ideation and measures 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 find this somewhat questionable. I would self report as a believer in conspiracy theories like: * 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 o…

A conspiracy theory is a theorized conspiracy, not just any given incident in history where a conspiracy has occurred.

The reason people express 'belief' in conspiracy theories is because they by definition are making a leap of faith on something that isn't widely considered verified or proven.

Re: Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

#24

Post by lioeters » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 11:36 AM UTC

bondarchuk wrote: post #9

bondarchuk wrote: post #6

They use these three questionnaires: Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (BCTI; Swami et al., 2011) Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS; Brotherton et al., 2013) Vaccine Conspiracy Theories Scale (VCBS; Shapiro et al., 2016) The first one is here in table 4: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5322923/ The second one is here in the appendix: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/1…

The GCBS: 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…

Replace extraterrestrials with intelligence agencies, and we've got most of the points nailed. Adjusts tin-foil hat

Re: Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

#25

Post by brvsft » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 11:37 AM UTC

dazzawazza wrote: post #5

sesm wrote: post #3

How do they establish, that a person has ‘Conspiracy Beliefs’?

> cross-sectional relations between self-reported conspiratorial ideation and measures 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 would say they’re often no more interesting than anyone else.

My sister-in-law supposedly believes Princess Diana was assassinated, which is included in one of these lists of popular conspiracy theories. She might have other similar beliefs, but as far as I know, she’s a normal person with fairly normal (uncontroversial) beliefs.

To me, a single belief in A conspiracy theory is not that big of a deal. When someone starts believing in many of these, it gets more interesting.

Re: Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

#26

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 11:39 AM UTC

bondarchuk wrote: post #11

bondarchuk wrote: post #6

They use these three questionnaires: Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (BCTI; Swami et al., 2011) Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS; Brotherton et al., 2013) Vaccine Conspiracy Theories Scale (VCBS; Shapiro et al., 2016) The first one is here in table 4: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5322923/ The second one is here in the appendix: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/1…

The BCTI: 1. A powerful and secretive group, known as the New World Order, are planning to eventually rule the world through an autonomous world government, which would replace sovereign government. 2. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was produced under laboratory conditions as a biological weapon. 3. The US government had foreknowledge about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, but allowed the attack to tak…

[deleted]

Re: Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

#27

Post by philwelch » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 11:40 AM UTC

bondarchuk wrote: post #11

bondarchuk wrote: post #6

They use these three questionnaires: Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (BCTI; Swami et al., 2011) Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS; Brotherton et al., 2013) Vaccine Conspiracy Theories Scale (VCBS; Shapiro et al., 2016) The first one is here in table 4: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5322923/ The second one is here in the appendix: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/1…

The BCTI: 1. A powerful and secretive group, known as the New World Order, are planning to eventually rule the world through an autonomous world government, which would replace sovereign government. 2. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was produced under laboratory conditions as a biological weapon. 3. The US government had foreknowledge about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, but allowed the attack to tak…

> 5. The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., was the result of an organised conspiracy by US government agencies such as the CIA and FBI.

My understanding is that this is the sincere belief of King’s own immediate family. It is certainly in character for the FBI given what we know about COINTELPRO.

> 9. The assassination of John F. Kennedy was not committed by the lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, but was rather a detailed, organised conspiracy to kill the President.

This was the determination of the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1979.

> 14. Special interest groups are suppressing, or have suppressed in the past, technologies that could provide energy at reduced cost or reduced pollution output.

One of them is called “Greenpeace”.

Re: Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

#28

Post by brvsft » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 11:40 AM UTC

bondarchuk wrote: post #9

bondarchuk wrote: post #6

They use these three questionnaires: Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (BCTI; Swami et al., 2011) Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS; Brotherton et al., 2013) Vaccine Conspiracy Theories Scale (VCBS; Shapiro et al., 2016) The first one is here in table 4: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5322923/ The second one is here in the appendix: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/1…

The GCBS: 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…

A lot of these are generic enough that you could get a lot of people to admit they believe in them, especially with the right definitions of words.

Even though the UFO/extraterrestrial stuff seems really kooky to me, there are plenty of people who probably believe it.

Re: Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

#29

Post by JieJie » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 12:28 PM UTC

antegamisou wrote: post #14

bondarchuk wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The GCBS: 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…

It’s very reductionist to consider the items on this list largely conspiracy theories. > 10. New and advanced technology, which would harm the current industry, is being suppressed. I don’t know, are you sure the folks at OpenAI, or some better-equipped competitor for that matter, haven’t came up with something more horrific than Sora?

Didn't Google have a chatbot locked up in a lab somewhere^0, long before ChatGPT?

0: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jun/12/google-en...

Re: Psychopathological Correlates of Conspiracy Beliefs

#30

Post by gadders » Mon, Mar 04, 2024, 12:36 PM UTC

antegamisou wrote: post #14

bondarchuk wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The GCBS: 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…

It’s very reductionist to consider the items on this list largely conspiracy theories. > 10. New and advanced technology, which would harm the current industry, is being suppressed. I don’t know, are you sure the folks at OpenAI, or some better-equipped competitor for that matter, haven’t came up with something more horrific than Sora?

I mean this is largely what The Innovators Dilemma was about, I thought?