Belief in conspiracy theories and intentions to engage in everyday crime

Jolley, Daniel, Douglas, Karen M., Leite, Ana C. and Schrader, Tanya (2019) Belief in conspiracy theories and intentions to engage in everyday crime. British Journal of Social Psychology, 58 (3). pp. 534-549. ISSN 0144-6665

[img]
Preview
Text
NRL_40849.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (220kB) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12311

Abstract

Belief in conspiracy theories is associated with negative outcomes such as political disengagement, prejudice, and environmental inaction. The current studies - one cross-sectional (N = 253) and one experimental (N = 120) - tested the hypothesis that belief in conspiracy theories would increase intentions to engage in everyday crime. Study 1 demonstrated that belief in conspiracy theories predicted everyday crime behaviours when controlling for other known predictors of everyday crime (e.g., Honesty-Humility). Study 2 demonstrated that exposure to conspiracy theories (vs. control) increased intentions to engage in everyday crime in the future, through an increased feeling of anomie. The perception that others have conspired may therefore in some contexts lead to negative action rather than inaction.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: conspiracy theories, conspiracy beliefs, everyday crime, unethical behaviour, anomie
Subjects: C800 Psychology
Department: Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User: Paul Burns
Date Deposited: 25 Sep 2019 14:45
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 13:18
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/40849

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics