Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2024-3
Conspiracy Theories and Anxiety in Culture: Why is Threat-Related Misinformation an Evolved Product of Our Ability to Mobilize Sources in the Face of Un-represented Threat?
This paper argues that the allure of conspiracy theories lies in their evolutionary origins, specifically in our capacity to communicate unrepresented threats. Drawing on threat-detection psychology and error management theory, it posits that these theories serve as adaptive responses to perceived threats and social coalition-building, rather than as flaws in reasoning.
AcerbiAlberto. 2022. “From Storytelling to Facebook.” Human Nature33: 132-44. doi:10.1007/s12110-022-09423-1.
4.
AlloaEmmanuel. 2021. “Coronavirus: A Contingency that Eliminates Contingency.” Critical Inquiry47 (S2): S73-76. doi:10.1086/711440.
5.
AllportGordon WillardPostmanLeo. 1947. The Psychology of Rumor. New York: Henry Holt.
6.
AlperSinan. 2021. “When Conspiracy Theories Make Sense: The Role of Social Inclusiveness.” PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/2umfe.
7.
AltaySachaAcerbiAlberto. 2022. “Misinformation Is a Threat Because (Other) People Are Gullible.” PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/n4qrj.
8.
AltaySachaBerricheManonAcerbiAlberto. 2023. “Misinformation on Misinformation: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges.” Social Media + Society9 (1). doi:10.1177/20563051221150412.
9.
AndersonBenedict. 1983 (2006). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised ed.London: Verso.
10.
ArrizabalagaJon. 2018. “Pestis Manufacta: Plague, Poisons and Fear in Mid-Fourteenth-Century Europe.” In It All Depends on the Dose: Poisons and Medicines in European History, edited by Peter GrellOleGunninghamAndrewArrizabalagaJon, 62-80. London: Routledge.
AurigemmaLuigi. 1976 (2017). Le Signe Zodiacal du Scorpion: Dans les traditions occidentales de l’Antiquité gréco-latine à la Renaissance. Reprint ed.Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
13.
BarkunMichael. 2003. A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Oakland: University of California Press.
14.
BarlowDavid H. 1988 (2002). Anxiety and its Disorders: The Nature and Treatment of Anxiety and Panic. 2nd ed.New York: Guilford Press.
15.
BerneckerSvenFlowerreeAmy K.GrundmannThomas, eds. 2021. The Epistemology of Fake News. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
16.
BinnendykJabinPennycookGordon. 2022. “Intuition, Reason, and Conspiracy Beliefs.” Current Opinion in Psychology47: 101387. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101387.
17.
BlaineTimothyBoyerPascal. 2018. “Origins of Sinister Rumors: A Preference for Threat-Related Material in the Supply and Demand of Information.” Evolution and Human Behavior39 (1): 67-75. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.10.001.
18.
Bliege BirdRebeccaPowerEleanor A.. 2015. “Prosocial Signaling and Cooperation among Martu Hunters.” Evolution and Human Behavior36 (5): 389-97. doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.02.003.
19.
BonettoEricTroïanJaïsVaretFlorentLo MonacoGrégoryGirandolaFabien. 2018. “Priming Resistance to Persuasion Decreases Adherence to Conspiracy Theories.” Social Influence13 (3): 125-36. doi:10.1080/15534510.2018.1471415.
BoyerPascal. 2001. Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York: Basic Books.
22.
BoyerPascal. 2018. Minds Make Societies: How Cognition Explains the World Humans Create. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
23.
BoyerPascal. 2021. “Deriving Features of Religions in the Wild.” Human Nature32 (3): 557-81. doi:10.1007/s12110-021-09410-y.
24.
BoyerPascal. 2022. “Why We Blame Victims, Accuse Witches, Invent Taboos, and Invoke Spirits: A Model of Strategic Responses to Misfortune.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute28 (4): 1345-64. doi:10.1111/1467-9655.13826.
25.
BratuSofia. 2020. “The Fake News Sociology of COVID-19 Pandemic Fear: Dangerously Inaccurate Beliefs, Emotional Contagion, and Conspiracy Ideation.” Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations19: 128-34. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=857523
26.
BrunsAxelHurcombeEdwardHarringtonStephen. 2021. “Covering Conspiracy: Approaches to Reporting the COVID/5G Conspiracy Theory.” Digital Journalism10 (6): 930-51. doi:10.1080/21670811.2021.1968921.
27.
ButterMichael. 2020. “Conspiracy Theories in Films and Television Shows.” In Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories, edited by ButterMichaelKnightPeter, 457-68. London: Routledge.
28.
CamusRenaud. 2012. Le Grand Remplacement [The Great Replacement]. Nueilly-sur-Seine, France: David Reinharc.
29.
ChagnonNapoleon A.2013. Noble Savages: My Life Among Two Dangerous Tribes—The Yanomamö and the Anthropologists. New York: Simon & Schuster.
30.
ChenKelinLuoYuniHuAnyangZhaoJiZhangLiwei. 2021. “Characteristics of Misinformation Spreading on Social Media During the COVID-19 Outbreak in China: A Descriptive Analysis.” Risk Management and Healthcare Policy14 (May): 1869-79. doi:10.2147/RMHP.S312327.
CohnSamuel K.2012. “Pandemics: Waves of Disease, Waves of Hate from the Plague of Athens to A.I.D.S.” Historical Research85 (230): 535-55. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.2012.00603.x.
33.
ConnollyJennifer M.UscinskiJoseph E.KlofstadCasey A.WestJonathan P.. 2019. “Communicating to the Public in the Era of Conspiracy Theory.” Public Integrity21 (5): 469-76. doi:10.1080/10999922.2019.1603045.
34.
CordonierLaurentCafieroFlorianBronnerGérald. 2021. “Why Are Conspiracy Theories More Successful in Some Countries than in Others? An Exploratory Study on Internet Users from 22 Western and Non-Western Countries.” Social Science Information60 (3): 436-56. doi:10.1177/05390184211018961.
35.
CortadaJames W.AsprayWilliam. 2019. Fake News Nation: The Long History of Lies and Misinterpretations in America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
36.
CosentinoGabriele. 2020. “From Pizzagate to the Great Replacement: The Globalization of Conspiracy Theories.” In Social Media and the Post-Truth World Order: The Global Dynamics of Disinformation, 59-86. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-43005-4_3.
37.
De ConinckDavidFrissenThomasMatthijsKoend’HaenensLeenLitsGrégoireChampagne-PoirierOlivierCarignanMarie-EveDavidMarc D.Pignard-CheynelNathalieSalernoSébastienGénéreuxMelissa. 2021. “Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation about COVID-19: Comparative Perspectives on the Role of Anxiety, Depression and Exposure to and Trust in Information Sources.” Frontiers in Psychology12 (April): 646394. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.646394.
38.
DelumeauJean. 2014. La Peur en Occident: Une cité assiégée. Paris: Fayard.
39.
Dennis-TiwaryTracy. 2022. Future Tense: Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though it Feels Bad). New York: HarperCollins.
40.
DentithM. R. X.2014. The Philosophy of Conspiracy Theories. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
DentithM. R. X.2023. “The Future of the Philosophy of Conspiracy Theory: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Conspiracy Theory Theory.” Social Epistemology37 (4): 405-12. doi:10.1080/02691728.2023.2173538.
43.
DouglasKaren M.SuttonRobbie M.CichockaAleksandra. 2017. “The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories.” Current Directions in Psychological Science26 (6): 538-42. doi:10.1177/0963721417718261.
DuetzJ. C. M.2023. “What Does It Mean for a Conspiracy Theory to Be a ‘Theory.” Social Epistemology37 (4): 438-53. doi:10.1080/02691728.2023.2172697.
46.
EkmanMattias. 2022. “The Great Replacement: Strategic Mainstreaming of Far-Right Conspiracy Claims.” Convergence28 (4): 1127-43. doi:10.1177/13548565221091983.
47.
EndersAdam M.UscinskiJoseph E.KlofstadCasey A.WuchtyStefanSeeligMichelle I.FunchionJohn R.MurthiManohar N.PremaratneKamalStolerJustin. 2021. “Who Supports QAnon? A Case Study in Political Extremism.” Journal of Politics84 (3): 1844-49. doi:10.1086/717850.
48.
FergusonNiall. 2017. The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook. London: Penguin.
49.
FinleyTheresaKoyamaMark. 2018. “Plague, Politics, and Pogroms: The Black Death, the Rule of Law, and the Persecution of Jews in the Holy Roman Empire.” Journal of Law and Economics61 (2): 253-77. doi:10.1086/699016.
FodorJerry A.2000. The Mind Doesn’t Work that Way: The Scope and Limits of Computational Psychology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
52.
FrankfurterDavid. 2006. Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy and Satanic Abuse in History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691186979
53.
FraulinGeorgiaLeeSabineBartelsSusan A.. 2022. “‘They Came with Cholera When They Were Tired of Killing Us with Bullets’: Community Perceptions of the 2010 Origin of Haiti’s Cholera Epidemic.” Global Public Health17 (5): 738-52. doi:10.1080/17441692.2021.1887315.
54.
GatAzar. 2006. War in Human Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
55.
GiuseppeMaiello. 2014. Vampyrismus a Magia Posthuma. Praha: Epocha.
56.
GottschallJonathan. 2021. The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears Them Down. New York: Basic Books.
57.
GreenRickyDouglasKaren M.. 2018. “Anxious Attachment and Belief in Conspiracy Theories.” Personality and Individual Differences125: 30-37.
58.
GreenRickyToribio-FlórezDanielDouglasKaren M.BrunkowJames W.SuttonRobbie M.. 2023. “Making an Impression: The Effects of Sharing Conspiracy Theories.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology104: 104398. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104398.
59.
GreerChrisReinerRobert. 2012. “Mediated Mayhem: Media, Crime and Criminal Justice.” In Oxford Handbook of Criminology, edited by MaguireMikeMorganRodReinerRobert, 245-78. 5th ed.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
60.
Grzesiak-FeldmanMonika. 2013. “The Effect of High-Anxiety Situations on Conspiracy Thinking.” Current Psychology32 (1): 100-118. doi:10.1007/s12144-013-9165-6.
61.
HaseltonMartie G.NettleDaniel. 2006. “The Paranoid Optimist: An Integrative Evolutionary Model of Cognitive Biases.” Personality and Social Psychology Review10 (1): 47-66. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr1001_3.
62.
HeerenAlexandre. 2020. “On the Distinction between Fear and Anxiety in a (Post)Pandemic World: A Commentary on Schimmenti et al. (2020).” Clinical Neuropsychiatry17 (3): 189-91. doi:10.36131/cnfioritieditore20200307.
63.
HenrichJosephMuthukrishnaMichael. 2021. “The Origins and Psychology of Human Cooperation.” Annual Review of Psychology72: 207-40.
64.
HitchenEsther. 2021. “The Affective Life of Austerity: Uncanny Atmospheres and Paranoid Temporalities.” Social & Cultural Geography22 (3): 295-318. doi:10.1080/14649365.2019.1574884.
65.
HorwitzAllan V.2013. Anxiety: A Short History. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
66.
HuttonRonald. 2017. The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
67.
IngramKevin, ed. 2009. The Conversos and Moriscos in Late Medieval Spain and beyond: Departures and Change. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill.
68.
KapantaiEleniChristopoulouAndronikiBerberidisChristosPeristerasVassilios. 2021. “A Systematic Literature Review on Disinformation: Toward a Unified Taxonomical Framework.” New Media & Society23 (5): 1301-26. doi:10.1177/1461444820959296.
69.
KarinenAnnika K.ChapmanHanah A.. 2019. “Cognitive and Personality Correlates of Trait Disgust and Their Relationship to Condemnation of Nonpurity Moral Transgressions.” Emotion19 (5): 889-902. doi:10.1037/emo0000489.
70.
KeeleyBrian L.1999 (2006). “Of Conspiracy Theories.” In Conspiracy Theories: The Philosophical Debate, edited by CoadyDavid, 45-60. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
71.
KurzbanRobertToobyJohnCosmidesLeda. 2001. “Can Race Be Erased? Coalitional Computation and Social Categorization.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences98 (26): 15387-92. doi:10.1073/pnas.251541498.
72.
KramerHeinrichSprengerJacob. 1486 (2009). The Hammer of Witches: A Complete Translation of the Malleus Maleficarum. Translated by Christopher S. Mackay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
73.
LarssonStieg. 2005–7 (2016). The Millennium Trilogy. London: Hachette UK.
74.
LeBlancSteven A.RegisterKatherine E.. 2004. Constant Battles: Why We Fight. New York: St. Martin’s.
75.
LefebvreGeorges. 1932 (1973). The Great Fear of 1789: Rural Panic in Revolutionary France. Translated by Joan White. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
76.
LewandowskyStephanvan der LindenSander. 2021. “Countering Misinformation and Fake News Through Inoculation and Prebunking.” European Review of Social Psychology32 (2): 348-84. doi:10.1080/10463283.2021.1876983.
77.
LiuCongYangJunGuXixi. 2021. “Antecedents of Workplace Ostracism.” In Workplace Ostracism: Its Nature, Antecedents, and Consequences, edited by LiuCongMaJie, 65-99. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-54379-2_3.
78.
LopesBarbara C.KamauCarolineJaspalRusi. 2019. “Coping With Perceived Abusive Supervision: The Role of Paranoia.” Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies26 (2): 237-55. doi:10.1177/1548051818795821.
79.
MachautGuillaume de.2016. “The Debate Poems: Le Jugement dou Roy de Behaigne, Le Jugement dou Roy de Navarre, Le Lay de Plour.” Edited and translated by PalmerR. Barton. Vol. 1 of Guillaume de Machaut: The Complete Poetry and Music. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications.
80.
MercierHugo. 2020. Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and what We Believe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
81.
MeyerMarcoAlfanoMarkde BruinBoudewijn. 2021. “Epistemic Vice Predicts Acceptance of Covid-19 Misinformation.” Episteme. First View: 1-22. doi:10.1017/epi.2021.18.
82.
MianiAlessandroHillsThomasBangerterAdrian. 2022. “LOCO: The 88-Million-Word Language of Conspiracy Corpus.” Behavior Research Methods54 (4): 1794-817. doi:10.3758/s13428-021-01698-z.
MoskalenkoSophiaMcCauleyClark. 2021. “QAnon: Radical Opinion versus Radical Action.” Perspectives on Terrorism15 (2): 142-6. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27007300
85.
NaveGideonRentfrowJasonBhatiaSudeep. 2020. “We Are What We Watch: Movie Plots Predict the Personalities of Their Fans.” PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/wsdu8.
86.
NormanAndy. 2021. Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think. New York: Harper Wave.
87.
PalecekMartin. Forthcoming. “Misinformation Proclivity as a Product of Cultural Evolution: Why Restrictions Cannot Work?” In Teaching Humanities and Social Sciences Interculturally: A Contemporary Central European Perspective, edited by BeranZdeněk, 90-106. Hradec Kralove: University of Hradec Kralove.
88.
PetersMichael A. 2021. “On the Epistemology of Conspiracy.” Educational Philosophy and Theory53 (14): 1413-17. doi:10.1080/00131857.2020.1741331.
89.
PickeringMichael G. 2020. “Vampires, Ottomans, and the Specter of Contagion: The Intersectionality of Fear on the Periphery of the Habsburg Monarchy.” In Fear in the German-Speaking World, 1600–2000, edited by KehoeThomasPickeringMichael G., 41-64. London: Bloomsbury.
90.
PierreJoseph M. 2020. “Mistrust and Misinformation: A Two-Component, Socio-Epistemic Model of Belief in Conspiracy Theories.” Journal of Social and Political Psychology8 (2): 617-41. doi:10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1362.
91.
PietraszewskiDavidCosmidesLedaToobyJohn. 2014. “The Content of Our Cooperation, Not the Color of Our Skin: An Alliance Detection System Regulates Categorization by Coalition and Race, but Not Sex.” PLOS ONE9 (2): e88534. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088534.
92.
PietraszewskiDavidScott CurryOliverPetersenMichael BangCosmidesLedaToobyJohn. 2015. “Constituents of Political Cognition: Race, Party Politics, and the Alliance Detection System.” Cognition140 (July): 24-39. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2015.03.007.
SchallerMarkParkJustin H.. 2011. “The Behavioral Immune System (and Why It Matters).” Current Directions in Psychological Science20 (2): 99-103. doi:10.1177/0963721411402596.
96.
SchweitzerDahlia. 2018. Going Viral: Zombies, Viruses, and the End of the World. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
97.
ŠindelářBedřich. 1986. Hon Na Čarodějnice: Západní a Střední Evropa V 16.-17. Století. Praha: Nakl. Svoboda.
98.
SinghManvir. 2021. “Magic, Explanations, and Evil: The Origins and Design of Witches and Sorcerers.” Current Anthropology62 (1): 2-29. doi:10.1086/713111.
99.
SnowdenFrank M.2019. Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
ŠrolJakubMikuškováEva BallováČavojováVladimíra. 2021. “When We Are Worried, What Are We Thinking? Anxiety, Lack of Control, and Conspiracy Beliefs amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Applied Cognitive Psychology35 (3): 720-9. doi:10.1002/acp.3798.
102.
Stewart-WilliamsSteve. 2018. The Ape that Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
103.
StokesPatrick. 2018. “Conspiracy Theory and the Perils of Pure Particularism.” In Taking Conspiracy Theories Seriously, edited by DentithMatthew R. X., 25-37. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
104.
ToobyJohnCosmidesLeda. 1988. “The Evolution of War and Its Cognitive Foundations.” Institute for Evolutionary Studies Technical Report88 (1): 1-15.
105.
TurchinPeter. 2016. Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth. Chaplin, CT: Beresta Books.
106.
UscinskiJoseph E.EndersAdam M.. 2022. “What Is a Conspiracy Theory and Why Does It Matter?” Critical Review. Ahead of Print, 1-22. doi:10.1080/08913811.2022.2115668.
107.
UscinskiJoseph E.ParentJoseph M.. 2014. American Conspiracy Theories. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Van der TempelJanAlcockJames E.. 2015. “Relationships between Conspiracy Mentality, Hyperactive Agency Detection, and Schizotypy: Supernatural Forces at Work?” Personality and Individual Differences82 (August): 136-41. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.03.010.
110.
Van ProoijenJan-Willem. 2020. “An Existential Threat Model of Conspiracy Theories.” European Psychologist25 (1): 16-25. doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000381.
111.
Van ProoijenJan-WillemDouglasKaren M.. 2017. “Conspiracy Theories as Part of History: The Role of Societal Crisis Situations.” Memory Studies10 (3): 323-33. doi:10.1177/1750698017701615.
112.
Van ProoijenJan-WillemLigthartJolineRosemaSabineXuYang. 2022. “The Entertainment Value of Conspiracy Theories.” British Journal of Psychology113 (1): 25-48. doi:10.1111/bjop.12522.
113.
Van ProoijenJan-Willemvan VugtMark. 2018. “Conspiracy Theories: Evolved Functions and Psychological Mechanisms.” Perspectives on Psychological Science13 (6): 770-88. doi:10.1177/1745691618774270.
114.
Wagner-EggerPascal. 2022. “The Noises of Conspiracy: Psychology of Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories.” PsyArXiv. doi:10.31234/osf.io/fv52e.
WilliamsMatt N.MarquesMathew D.HillStephen R.KerrJohn R.LingMathew. 2022. “Why Are Beliefs in Different Conspiracy Theories Positively Correlated across Individuals? Testing Monological Network versus Unidimensional Factor Model Explanations.” British Journal of Social Psychology61 (3): 1011-31. doi:10.1111/bjso.12518.
117.
WilsonPeter H. 2009. The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
