The social psychology of conspiracy theories: Key insights and future challenges

Conspiracy theories are a common feature of social and political debate, and of growing concern for governments and policymakers. Awareness of the importance of conspiracy theories has been facilitated by a rapid expansion of empirical research in the past 20 years, and the bulk of this research comes from social psychology. In the current chapter, we review this significant research progress, focusing on the antecedents of conspiracy beliefs and their consequences. As we review this literature, we refer to examples from our ongoing research programme. We then articulate what we perceive to be the main limitations of the research to date focusing on measurement, sampling and theoretical focus, and propose avenues for future research. Finally, we briefly discuss interventions to address the effects of conspiracy theories.