Belief in conspiracy theories and intentions to engage in everyday crime

Jolley, Daniel; Douglas, Karen M.; Leite, Ana C.; Schrader, Tanya

doi:10.1111/bjso.12311

Belief in conspiracy theories and intentions to engage in everyday crime

Jolley, Daniel; Douglas, Karen M.; Leite, Ana C.; Schrader, Tanya

Authors

Daniel Jolley

Karen M. Douglas

Dr Ana Leite ana.castro-leite@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Tanya Schrader

Abstract

Belief in conspiracy theories is associated with negative outcomes such as political disengagement, prejudice, and environmental inaction. The current studies – one cross‐sectional (N = 253) and one experimental (N = 120) – tested the hypothesis that belief in conspiracy theories would increase intentions to engage in everyday crime. Study 1 demonstrated that belief in conspiracy theories predicted everyday crime behaviours when controlling for other known predictors of everyday crime (e.g., Honesty–Humility). Study 2 demonstrated that exposure to conspiracy theories (vs. control) increased intentions to engage in everyday crime in the future, through an increased feeling of anomie. The perception that others have conspired may therefore in some contexts lead to negative action rather than inaction.

Citation

Jolley, D., Douglas, K. M., Leite, A. C., & Schrader, T. (2019). Belief in conspiracy theories and intentions to engage in everyday crime. British Journal of Social Psychology, 58(3), 534-549. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12311

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Dec 27, 2018
Online Publication Date	Jan 19, 2019
Publication Date	Jul 31, 2019
Deposit Date	Jun 13, 2019
Publicly Available Date	Jan 19, 2020
Journal	British Journal of Social Psychology
Print ISSN	0144-6665
Electronic ISSN	2044-8309
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	58
Issue	3
Pages	534-549
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12311

Files

Accepted Journal Article (239 Kb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Jolley, Daniel, Douglas, Karen M., Leite, Ana C. & Schrader, Tanya (2019). Belief in conspiracy theories and intentions to engage in everyday crime. British Journal of Social Psychology 58(3): 534-549, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12311. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.