ABSTRACT
People differ in whether they perceive evidence for a conspiracy in similar stimuli. For instance, based on the same video footage, some people see irrefutable evidence that the moon landings were fake (e.g. the U.S. flag appears to be waving despite the lack of wind on the moon), while others do not see such evidence. This suggests a prominent role for psychology in the study of conspiracy theories, as this discipline examines what individual and social factors determine whether people believe or disbelieve conspiracy theories (van Prooijen 2018). In the current chapter, we specifically focus on the role of social cognition: How does the human mind process information about conspiracy theories, and what specific social-cognitive processes increase the likelihood that people believe these theories?
