Current project leader: Bruno Gabriel Salvador Casara

Description: Conspiracy beliefs are a widespread phenomenon with a concrete impact on societies’ development. Some of the major scientific challenges related to conspiracy beliefs are to understand why people believe in conspiracy beliefs, and what are the consequences of endorsing such beliefs. Related to the antecedents of conspiracy beliefs, even if conspiracy theories are diverse in their content, previous research highlighted that believing in them is rooted in common psychological processes. Similarly, it is supposed that conspiracy beliefs may have general consequences on both attitudes and behaviours. The current project aims to explore why and when people have conspiracy beliefs and what can be the consequences of believing in conspiracy narratives. 

Representative Publications:

• Salvador Casara, B. G., Suitner, C., & Bettinsoli, M. L. (2019). Viral suspicions: Vaccine hesitancy in the Web 2.0. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 25(3), 354–371. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000211 
• Salvador Casara, B. G., Filippi, S., Suitner, C., Dollani, E., & Maass, A. (2023). Tax the élites! The role of economic inequality and conspiracy beliefs on attitudes towards taxes and redistribution intentions. British Journal of Social Psychology, 62(1), 104-118. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12555 
• Salvador Casara, B. G., Suitner, C., & Jetten, J. (2022). The impact of economic inequality on conspiracy beliefs. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 98, Article 104245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104245 

Collaborators:

• Bruno Gabriel Salvador Casara
• Caterina Suitner
• Anne Maass