Scholarlink

<p>Belief in various types of Epistemically Suspect Beliefs (ESBs), such as conspiracy theories, paranormal phenomena, and pseudoscientific claims, tends to strongly correlate. However, the use of ESB scales in the literature, which often include phenomena frequently encountered in daily life with familiar content, challenges the clarity of inferences about this relationship. To address this issue, we developed a scale for Fictitious Epistemically Suspect Beliefs (FESBs), composed entirely of novel and fabricated statements related to conspiracy, paranormal activity, and pseudoscience. In Study 1, with a Turkish sample of 448 participants, we found that FESBs positively correlated with ESBs, despite consisting of less familiar claims. Moreover, both FESBs and ESBs showed similar associations with individual differences in worldview and cognition. These findings were replicated in a larger Turkish sample (<i>N</i> = 786) in Study 2, and a UK sample (<i>N</i> = 746) in Study 3. The results indicate that individuals with higher ESBs are more likely to endorse FESBs, despite having never encountered these claims before.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Fictitious conspiracy, paranormal, and pseudoscience beliefs are closely related to their regular counterparts

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2025年3月8日

查看全文
  • Sinan Alper,
  • Tugcenaz Elcil,
  • Nazif Karaca,
  • Fatih Bayrak,
  • Onurcan Yilmaz

摘要

Belief in various types of Epistemically Suspect Beliefs (ESBs), such as conspiracy theories, paranormal phenomena, and pseudoscientific claims, tends to strongly correlate. However, the use of ESB scales in the literature, which often include phenomena frequently encountered in daily life with familiar content, challenges the clarity of inferences about this relationship. To address this issue, we developed a scale for Fictitious Epistemically Suspect Beliefs (FESBs), composed entirely of novel and fabricated statements related to conspiracy, paranormal activity, and pseudoscience. In Study 1, with a Turkish sample of 448 participants, we found that FESBs positively correlated with ESBs, despite consisting of less familiar claims. Moreover, both FESBs and ESBs showed similar associations with individual differences in worldview and cognition. These findings were replicated in a larger Turkish sample (N = 786) in Study 2, and a UK sample (N = 746) in Study 3. The results indicate that individuals with higher ESBs are more likely to endorse FESBs, despite having never encountered these claims before.