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. 2023;42(8):6347-6356.
doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-01977-0. Epub 2021 Jun 15.

Examining a domain-specific link between perceived control and conspiracy beliefs: a brief report in the context of COVID-19

Ana Stojanov  1 , Jamin Halberstadt  1 , Jesse M Bering  2 , Nikolina Kenig  3
Affiliations

Examining a domain-specific link between perceived control and conspiracy beliefs: a brief report in the context of COVID-19

Ana Stojanov et al. Curr Psychol. 2023.

Abstract

Although anecdotal evidence suggests that control-threatening situations are associated with an increase in conspiracy beliefs, existing research does not support this "compensatory control" hypothesis. In the current study, we test a more refined hypothesis: that the link between control threat and conspiracy beliefs is domain specific, such that perceived control in a particular domain should lead to conspiracy beliefs pertaining to that domain only. Moreover, given that conspiracy beliefs are stigmatized (i.e., not socially acceptable), we propose that they should be endorsed only when other compensatory systems are frustrated. We test these ideas in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants from North Macedonia and New Zealand, who differed in perceived government effectiveness, filled in a questionnaire measuring domain-specific and domain-general perceived control, as well as domain-specific and domain-general conspiracy beliefs. As expected, domain specificity of the control threat predicted domain-specific conspiracy beliefs in the Macedonian group only. The results have implication for compensatory control theory, suggesting that the compensatory process may not always be as fluid as believed.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-01977-0.

Keywords: COVID-19; Compensatory control; Conspiracy beliefs; Conspiracy theories; Perceived control.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest/Competing InterestsThe authors declare no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region (worldwide) and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A score of 0 means that there was not enough data for this term. (Source: Google Trends)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The moderating effect of group on the relationship between COVID-19 related control and COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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