Paranoia and conspiracy thinking share many risk factors, such as victimization, poverty and social isolation. They also have many phenomenological features in common, including heightened tendency to attribute negative outcomes to malevolent agents and idiosyncratic pattern detection. Nevertheless, paranoia and conspiracy thinking also differ in key respects. Specifically, paranoid thoughts tend to be held in isolation and involve perceptions of harm to the self. Conspiracy beliefs, on the other hand, are shared by others and involve the perception of collective rather than personal harm. We discuss the similarities and differences between paranoia and conspiracy thinking and outline fruitful avenues for future research.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101362 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
The fragility of truth: Social epistemology in a time of polarization and pandemic.
Transcult Psychiatry
October 2024
Division of Social & Transcultural Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
This essay introduces a thematic issue of presenting selected papers from the 2022 McGill Advanced Study Institute in Cultural Psychiatry on "The Fragility of Truth: Social Epistemology in a Time of Polarization and Pandemic." The COVID-19 pandemic, political polarization, and the climate crisis have revealed that large segments of the population do not trust the best available knowledge and expertise in making vital decisions regarding their health, the governance of society, and the fate of the planet. What guides information-seeking, trust in authority, and decision-making in each of these domains? Articles in this issue include case studies of the dynamics of misinformation and disinformation; the adaptive functions and pathologies of belief, paranoia, and conspiracy theories; and strategies to foster and maintain diverse knowledge ecologies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis paper examines how conspiracy theories anchor affective communities through an analysis of the YouTube comment section for the actor and comedian turned political influencer Russell Brand. Comparing videos before and after Brand's shift to covid scepticism, I explore like counts, reply networks, and other commenting patterns in a dataset of 217,157 comments and conduct an in-depth analysis of 2000 top comments. The findings show first, a shift toward right-wing viewpoints; second, a reduction in comment length and comment replies alongside an increase in likes; third, a sharp rise in proclamations of Brand fandom; and fourth, a steep increase in references to conspiracy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF[Conspiracy theories, social polarization and crises].
Nervenarzt
November 2024
, Asternweg 65, 50259, Pulheim, Deutschland.
Objective: Social media facilitate the distribution of conspiracy theories. It is uncertain whether indeed the number of myths and also the number of those who appropriate myths has increased. Conspiracy theories have so far essentially been the subject of sociological and psychosociological research showing a general disposition to become infected irrespective of the topic of a myth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThought contagion? Conspiracy beliefs boost paranoid thoughts.
Appl Psychol Health Well Being
November 2024
Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Jaracza 1, Warsaw, 00-378, Poland.
Conspiracy theories accusing specific groups of secret malevolent actions can foster a perception of the world as a dangerous place. In our research, we contend that both adherence and exposure to conspiracy beliefs can serve as a potential cause of certain psychological problems in the form of paranoid thoughts. This hypothesis was tested in three studies conducted among Polish and British participants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPandemic Paranoia Scale for Adolescents (PPS-A): An Initial Psychometric Evaluation and Prevalence Study of Adolescents in the United States and United Kingdom.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol
November 2024
Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, 345 Blackstone Blvd., Providence, RI, 02906, USA.
Article Synopsis
- * The study evaluated the Pandemic Paranoia Scale for Adolescents (PPS-A), adapted from an adult version, and surveyed 462 adolescents in the US and UK, including input from their parents
- * Results demonstrated that the PPS-A effectively measures paranoia with the same structure as adult measures, revealing a 21% prevalence of pandemic-related paranoia in adolescents, higher in the US than in the UK, underscoring ongoing mental health concerns post-COVID-19
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!