People who prefer structured, rule-based explanations may find conspiracy theories appealing because they offer a clear, ordered explanation for events that feel chaotic. New research led by Flinders University has found that understanding how someone processes information can be a strong predictor of whether they are drawn to conspiracy beliefs that can influence vaccine uptake, trust in institutions and responses to emergencies.
Why conspiracy theories can be so irresistible
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American reports of individual well-being have remained relatively stable over decades, but confidence in the nation has sharply declined. James N. Druckman and colleagues analyzed long-term survey data from two projects: the General Social Survey [...]
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The COVID-19 pandemic was a major health crisis that challenged citizens’ information management routines. Epistemic ideals guided how people scanned and filtered information, engaged with it and adapted their behavior accordingly.This post was originally published [...]
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A new study reveals that the image of a seamless global youth climate movement is fracturing as activists in the “periphery” feel increasingly sidelined by Western-centric leadership. By investigating why these local chapters face a [...]
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NLP offers powerful opportunities to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—including SDG2 (Zero Hunger). In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, mounting climate change impacts, and other crises in the 2020s, [...]
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When the federal government brings its toughest environmental enforcement actions against polluters, they tend to be in communities of greater wealth, not the most polluted places. That’s the takeaway from a new paper co-authored by [...]
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When lawmakers name bills after victims of tragedy—such as Megan’s Law or the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993—public support surges, but this emotional boost may come at the expense of sound policymaking, according [...]
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Turning on the “For You” algorithm on X (formerly Twitter) may shift users’ political opinions toward more conservative views, suggests research involving nearly 5,000 X users. These effects are shown to persist even after users [...]
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For the first time in more than half a century, there are no binding restraints on the buildup of the largest nuclear forces on Earth. The New START treaty expired on Feb. 5, 2026, ending [...]
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Fake news generated by AI is often perceived as more credible than texts written by humans. That worries linguist Silje Susanne Alvestad. In 2017, “fake news” was chosen as the new word of the year [...]
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Messages intended to suppress votes can be precisely delivered to particularly vulnerable and consequential groups of people via social media and keep millions of them from casting ballots, according to a new study that is [...]
