Frühere Untersuchungen zeigen, dass Menschen mit einem niedrigeren Bildungsniveau eher an Verschwörungstheorien glauben. Aber bei Narzissten hat Bildung keinen Schutz mehr. Hochgebildete Menschen mit narzisstischen Zügen waren gegenüber Verschwörungstheorien und Fehlinformationen eher aufgeschlossen.
https://theconversation.com/why-do-educated-people-fall-for-conspiracy-theories-it-could-be-narcissism-270169
6 Kommentare
That certainly tracks with my own anecdotal experience.
Why do educated people fall for conspiracy theories? It could be narcissism
If there are two things the internet loves talking about, it’s conspiracy theories, and who may or may not be a narcissist.
Misinformation and conspiratorial thinking are long-running concerns, while narcissism has become TikTok’s favourite armchair diagnosis.
Research shows the two concepts, though seemingly separate, may actually be closely linked.
The findings show higher scores on measures of narcissism were linked to belief in conspiracy theories and misinformation.
Importantly, this result held true regardless of how educated the participants were.
Scholarly evidence **shows people with lower levels of education are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories**. But that’s only part of the story.
We also know that historically, conspiracy theories have done well in times of uncertainty, including during war, economic downturn and widespread hardship (such as the COVID pandemic).
The participants had varying levels of education, ranging from high school or less through to having a masters or doctorate. They also had a variety of political beliefs.
**People who scored higher in narcissistic traits were more accepting of conspiracy theories and misinformation.**
Importantly, this was true regardless of how educated the person was.
**The results showed these traits might offset the differences linked to education. When these traits were above average, highly educated people were just as likely to endorse these beliefs as those without any formal education.**
For those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886925005306
Interesting the things that come out like this considering they used to say people who believed in elite child sex trafficking rings were loony conspiracy theorists. They don’t say that anymore for some reason but I forgot why
There are doctors who are antivax, airline employees who are flat earth, and bankers who are into crypto
Trumps own offerings of conspiracy theories, seem to be directly associated with his own involvement in said theories.
Some excerpts –
* In Study One, narcissistic grandiosity and the need for uniqueness offset negative effects of education on conspiracy mentality. Similarly, in Study Two, narcissism, and less consistently need for cognitive closure, offset the negative effects of education on generic conspiracy beliefs and susceptibility to misinformation.
* These findings suggest that education and reasoning may be made redundant by psychological needs for certainty, distinctiveness, and superiority – a process cautiously termed ‘epistemic-social motivated reasoning’. This framework describes how education-related abilities can be redirected towards underlying psychological and social needs rather than accuracy.
* at one standard deviation above the mean in grandiose narcissism, differences between education levels became non-significant (ps > 0.54), suggesting modest increases in grandiose narcissism reduce the protective effect of education to non-significant levels