Summary: Researchers report that people who experience social exclusion are more likely to accept disinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories.
Source: Princeton University.
Recent polls indicate that many white, working-class Americans feel marginalized—a sentiment that helped drive support for President Donald Trump. For some, that sense of exclusion made them more receptive to misleading information online and to stories that reinforced their existing views.
New research helps explain why exaggerated and inaccurate reports can gain traction. A Princeton University study published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology finds that social exclusion fosters conspiratorial thinking.
The researchers conducted a two-part investigation using two separate samples of participants (not specifically Trump supporters). They found that feelings of social exclusion tend to produce a search for meaning, which can push people toward extraordinary explanations—conspiracy theories or superstitious beliefs—that are not necessarily true.
Co-lead author Alin Coman, assistant professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton, said this pattern can create a harmful cycle. People who adopt conspiratorial ideas may alienate friends and family when they express those beliefs. That isolation can deepen their sense of exclusion, making conspiracy-focused online communities or groups that validate those beliefs more attractive, which in turn reinforces the beliefs.
“Breaking this cycle may be the most effective way to reduce the spread of conspiracy theories across a community,” Coman said. “If exclusion persists, communities risk becoming more receptive to inaccurate and conspiratorial narratives.”
Coman and co-author Damaris Graeupner, a research assistant in Princeton’s Department of Psychology, designed two studies to explore these dynamics. The first study recruited 119 participants through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing platform.
Those participants completed four phases. First, they wrote about a recent unpleasant interaction involving a close friend. Next, they rated how strongly they felt 14 different emotions, including feelings of exclusion, which were the focus of the analysis.
In the third phase, participants completed a questionnaire measuring their search for meaning, rating agreement with ten statements on a seven-point scale. Statements included items such as “I am seeking a purpose or mission for my life” and “I have discovered a satisfying life purpose.”
Finally, participants rated how much they endorsed three common conspiratorial claims on a scale from one (not at all) to seven (extremely). Examples included: “Pharmaceutical companies withhold cures for financial reasons,” “Governments use messages below the level of awareness to influence people’s decisions,” and “Events in the Bermuda Triangle constitute evidence of paranormal activity.”
“We selected these conspiracy examples because they have widespread appeal among the general public,” Coman said. “Each is endorsed by a significant portion of the U.S. population.”
Analysis of the results supported the authors’ hypothesis: higher levels of perceived social exclusion were associated with greater endorsement of conspiratorial and superstitious beliefs. Statistical tests indicated that a person’s search for meaning mediated this relationship—those who felt excluded were more likely to look for explanations, and that search increased the likelihood of accepting conspiracy-oriented explanations.
“People who feel pushed out often ask themselves why, which can trigger a stronger search for meaning,” Coman explained. “That search can make extraordinary or conspiratorial explanations more appealing. By contrast, feeling included does not usually prompt the same compensatory search.”
In the second study, the researchers tested causality. They recruited 120 Princeton students and used an experimental manipulation to create feelings of inclusion, exclusion or a neutral control condition. Participants wrote two short paragraphs—one describing “what it means to be me” and another describing “the kind of person I want to be.” They were told these descriptions would be evaluated by two classmates who would choose collaborators for a subsequent task.
In reality, selections were determined by the researchers. Each participant was randomly assigned to be told that they had been selected for collaboration (inclusion), not selected (exclusion), or given no information about selection (control). After this manipulation, participants completed measures similar to those in Study 1, assessing the extent to which they endorsed improbable or conspiratorial explanations.
The second study reproduced the first study’s results, providing experimental evidence that being made to feel socially excluded increases the likelihood of endorsing conspiratorial or superstitious beliefs.
These findings carry implications for policy and community programming: fostering inclusion may reduce the appeal and spread of inaccurate and conspiratorial narratives, particularly within groups at risk of marginalization.
“Policymakers should consider whether laws, regulations, and programs make people feel excluded,” Coman advised. “If policies produce feelings of exclusion, they could inadvertently create conditions that encourage the spread of superstitious and conspiratorial beliefs.”
The paper, “The dark side of meaning-making: How social exclusion leads to superstitious thinking,” appears in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (print edition, March 2017). The study did not receive specific funding from public, commercial or non-profit grant agencies.
Source: B. Rose Kelly — Princeton University
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image indicated as public domain.
Original Research: “The dark side of meaning-making: How social exclusion leads to superstitious thinking” by Damaris Graeupner and Alin Coman, Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology. Published online December 9, 2016. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2016.10.003
Princeton University. “Social Exclusion Leads to Conspiratorial Thinking.” Neuroscience News, February 16, 2017. (Original research published online December 9, 2016.)
Abstract
The dark side of meaning-making: How social exclusion leads to superstitious thinking
This paper evaluates a meaning-making model of conspiratorial thinking by examining whether a person’s search for meaning mediates the relationship between social exclusion and endorsement of conspiratorial or superstitious beliefs. Study 1 used self-reports from participants who wrote about a social interaction, indicated how excluded they felt, and then rated endorsement of three well-known conspiracy theories. Study 2 experimentally manipulated social inclusion, exclusion, or a control condition and measured participants’ tendency to link improbable events. Both studies measured participants’ search for meaning as the proposed mechanism. Results from the correlational Study 1 and the experimental Study 2 support the hypothesis that social exclusion is associated with greater endorsement of superstitious and conspiratorial beliefs, and that an increased search for meaning mediates this relation. The authors discuss implications for community belief dynamics and suggest that social inclusion may help reduce the dissemination of superstitious and conspiratorial beliefs.
“The dark side of meaning-making: How social exclusion leads to superstitious thinking” by Damaris Graeupner and Alin Coman. Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2016.10.003