HRPYC81 Project 5 Assignment 3 (RESEARCH PROPOSAL) 2026 - The Psychology of Conspiracy Beliefs

HRPYC81 Project 5 Assignment 3 (RESEARCH PROPOSAL) 2026 - The Psychology of Conspiracy Beliefs... Imagine the following situation. After waiting several hours at a local clinic, Zanele noticed that some patients had been called in before her. When others in the queue suggested that clinic staff were secretly prioritising certain people for hidden reasons, she began to believe the system was deliberately unfair. Feeling anxious and lacking control, Zanele stopped trusting official explanations about delays and interpreted routine inefficiency as evidence of a hidden plan. Zanele assumes a conspiracy. Some conspiracy theories can be benign and thus, rather entertaining than harmful. However, other conspiracy theories have the potential to be harmful to individuals and/or societies, such as the claim that HIV does not cause AIDS, and that antiretroviral treatments are harmful, promoted by the former president Thabo Mbeki from 1999 to 2008. It is essential to note that conspiracy theories are not only omnipresent among members of both modern and traditional societies, but also that the term conspiracy has been used to invalidate legitimate accusations (e.g., corruption). It is also important to note that conspiracies actually exist, as the State Capture Conspiracy that “A small group of business elites secretly controls government decisions” was eventually confirmed by the Zondo Commission. Conspiracy theory beliefs, which emerge from interactions of cognitive, motivational, personality, and socio-cultural processes, refer to “theories” about how people, objects or events are causally interconnected (pattern), stipulate that the plans of alleged conspirators are deliberate (agency), involve a coalition, or group, of actors working in conjunction, contain an element of threat such that the alleged goals of the conspirators are harmful or deceptive, and carry an element of secrecy and is therefore often difficult to invalidate (van Prooijen & van Vugt, 2018). Grounded in various psychological theoretical foundations (e.g., motivational, cognitive and reasoning styles) and related to concepts such as conspiracy mentality and cognitive biases, they are often described as comprising different interrelated components and psychological functions. Recent research suggests that conspiracy theory beliefs are related to various factors, including personality (dark triad) traits such as Narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and conspiracy mentality, emotional factors such as anxiety, cognitive factors such as (illusory) 2 pattern perceptions, Bullshit receptivity, supernatural beliefs, trust, mattering, mental well-being, life satisfaction, prosocial behaviour, prejudice and corruption, among. In addition, sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, relationship status, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status will be included as potential control variables.