Anti-Scientific Attitudes, Conspiracy Theories and the Collective Narcissism of it all.

Nadolna, Oliwia (2023) Anti-Scientific Attitudes, Conspiracy Theories and the Collective Narcissism of it all. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Anti-science and conspiracy theories cause a lot of misinformation on social and mass media, showing up on major platforms such as Facebook or Reddit. Scientists have been working hard to understand this rejection of scientific explanations in favour of alternative or outright dangerous ones, finding that antiscience and conspiracy theories are strongly correlated. However, it is also important to consider other elements to this puzzle, like collective narcissism, which measures the effects of group identity and bias, as anti-scientific beliefs are oftentimes spread in communities of like-minded individuals. The present study aims to replicate pre-established findings between the measures of anti-scientific attitudes (Science scepticism and distrust in scientists) and conspiracy theories and explore the role of collective narcissism as a moderator for these constructs. We used A nationally representative survey (N = 1500) of US American citizens on their anti-scientific beliefs and a large number of constructs. The results showed that people who believe in conspiracy theories are likely to also hold anti-scientific attitudes and that collective narcissism very slightly increases that correlation for scientific scepticism but not for trust in ordinary people vs scientists. We conclude that anti-scientific attitudes are related to conspiratorial thinking and that collective narcissism may have an effect on some aspects of antiscience, but a main effect being present is just as likely, which should be explored further in future studies.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor)
Supervisor name:	Azevedo Neto, F.A. de
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	None [Bachelor Psychology]
Date Deposited:	25 Jul 2023 14:28
Last Modified:	25 Jul 2023 14:28
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2616

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