What about building 7?" A social psychological study of online discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories

Frontiers in Psychology

Volumn 4, Issue JUL, 2013, Pages

  Wood, Michael J ^a   Douglas, Karen M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KENT   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Archival research; Conspiracy theories; Online discussion; Persuasion; Social influence

Indexed keywords

EID: 84885365356     PISSN: None     EISSN: 16641078     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00409     Document Type: Article

References (54)

1. Abalakina-Paap, M., Stephan, W. G., Craig, T., and Gregory, W. L. (1999). Beliefs in conspiracies. Pol. Psychol. 20, 637-647. doi: 10.1111/0162-895X.00160
2. Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., and Sanford, R. N. (1950). The Authoritarian Personality. Oxford: Harpers.
3. Barkun, M. (2006). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
4. Barber, P. (2008, June 7). The truth is out there. Financ. Times. Retrieved from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8d66e778-3128-11dd-ab22-000077b07658.html
5. Bartlett, J., and Miller, C. (2011). A bestiary of the 9/11 truth movement: notes from the front line. Skeptical Inquirer 35, 43-46.
6. Bratich, J. Z. (2002). "Injections and truth serums: AIDS conspiracy theories and the politics of articulation," in Conspiracy Nation: The Politics of Paranoia in Postwar America, ed P. Knight (New York, NY: New York University Press), 133-156.
7. Bratich, J. Z. (2008). Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture. New York, NY: State University of New York Press.
8. Byers, S. (2009, November 24). Wake up, America! Pravda. Retrieved from http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/feedback/24-11-2009/110699-wake_up_america-0/
9. Byford, J. (2011). Conspiracy Theories: A Critical Introduction. London: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9780230349216
10. Coady, D. (2006). Conspiracy Theories: The Philosophical Debate. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
11. Clarke, S. (2007). Conspiracy theories and the Internet: controlled demolition and arrested development. Episteme 4, 167-180
12. Crane, I. R. (2008). The Path to a New Reality: Engaging in the Game [Motion picture]. Available from http://www.ianrcrane.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=51
13. Darwin, H., Neave, N., and Holmes, J. (2011). Belief in conspiracy theories: the role of paranormal belief, paranoid ideation and schizotypy. Pers. Individ. Dif. 50, 1289-1293. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2011.02.027
14. Dean, J. (2002). "If anything is possible," in Conspiracy Nation: The Politics of Paranoia in Postwar America, ed P. Knight (New York, NY: New York University Press), 85-106.
15. Douglas, K. M., McGarty, C., Bliuc, A. M., and Lala, G. (2005). Understanding cyberhate: social competition and social creativity in online white supremacist groups. Soc. Sci. Comput. Rev. 23, 68-76. doi: 10.1177/0894439304271538
16. Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., and Stathi, S. (2010). Why I am less persuaded than you: people's intuitive understanding of the psychology of persuasion. Soc. Influence 5, 133-148. doi: 10.1080/15534511003597423
17. Douglas, K. M., and Sutton, R. M. (2008). The hidden impact of conspiracy theories: perceived and actual influence of theories surrounding the death of Princess Diana. J. Soc. Psychol. 148, 210-222. doi: 10.3200/SOCP.148.2.210-222
18. Douglas, K. M., and Sutton, R. M. (2011). Does it take one to know one? endorsement of conspiracy theories is influenced by personal willingness to conspire. Br. J. Soc. Psychol. 50, 544-552. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8309.2010.02018.x
19. Fat, M. J. L., Sell, E., Barrowman, N., and Doja, A. (2012). Public perception of Tourette Syndrome on YouTube. J. Child Neurol. 27, 1011-1016. doi: 10.1177/0883073811432294
20. Friestad, M., and Wright, P. (1999). Everyday persuasion knowledge. Psychol. Market. 16, 185-194.
21. Goertzel, T. (1994). Belief in conspiracy theories. Polit. Psychol. 15, 731-742. doi: 10.2307/3791630
22. Gonzalez-Bailon, S., Banchs, R. E., and Kaltenbrunner, A. (2012). Emotions, public opinion, and U.S. presidential approval rates: a 5-year analysis of online political discussions. Hum. Commun. Res. 38, 121-143. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2011.01423.x
23. Griffin, D. R. (2004). The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11. Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press.
24. Hamsher, J. H., Geller, J. D., and Rotter, J. B. (1968). Interpersonal trust, internal-external control, and the Warren Commission report. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 9, 210-215. doi: 10.1037/h0025900
25. Hofstadter, R. (1964, November). The paranoid style in American politics. Harper's Mag. 77-86.
26. Icke, D. (2012). David Icke-A Programmed Reality-Wake Up.. Wake Up.. Wake Up! Retrieved from http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/69538-david-icke-a-programmed-reality-wake-up-wake-up-wake-up/
27. Jolley, D., and Douglas, K. M. (2013). The social consequences of conspiracism: exposure to conspiracy theories decreases the intention to engage in politics and to reduce one's carbon footprint. Br. J. Psychol. doi: 10.1111/bjop.12018. [Epub ahead of print].
28. Kalichman, S. C., Eaton, L., and Cherry, C. (2010). "There is no proof that HIV causes AIDS": AIDS denialism beliefs among people living with HIV/AIDS. J. Behav. Med. 33, 432-440. doi: 10.1007/s10865-010-9275-7
29. Kay, J. (2011). Among the Truthers: A Journey through America's Conspiracist Underground. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
30. Keeley, B. L. (1999). Of conspiracy theories. J. Philos. 96, 109-126. doi: 10.2307/2564659
31. Landis, J. R., and Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics 33, 159-174. doi: 10.2307/2529310
32. Latané, B. (1981). The psychology of social impact. Am. Psychol. 36, 343-356. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.36.4.343
33. Lewandowsky, S., Cook, J., Oberauer, K., and Marriot, M. (2013a). Recursive fury: conspiracist ideation in the blogosphere in response to research on conspiracist ideation. Front. Psychol. 4:73. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00073
34. Lewandowsky, S., Oberauer, K., and Gignac, G. (2013b). NASA faked the moon landing-therefore (climate) science is a hoax: an anatomy of the motivated rejection of science. Psychol. Sci. 5, 622-633. doi: 10.1177/0956797612457686
35. Loke, J. (2012). Public expressions of private sentiments: unveiling the pulse of racial tolerance through online news readers' comments. Howard J. Commun. 23, 235-252. doi: 10.1080/10646175.2012.695643
36. Maass, A., and Clark, R. D. (1984). Hidden impact of minorities: fifteen years of minority influence research. Psychol. Bull. 95, 428-450. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.95.3.428
37. Newheiser, A. K., Farias, M., and Tausch, N. (2011). The functional nature of conspiracy beliefs: examining the underpinnings of belief in the Da Vinci Code conspiracy. Pers. Individ. Dif. 51, 1007-1011. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2011.08.011
38. Novella, S. (2009, April 27). Anomaly hunting. Retrieved from http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/anomaly-hunting/
39. Randi, J. (1982). Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
40. Robbins, J. M., and Krueger, J. I. (2005). Social projection to ingroups and outgroups: a review and meta-analysis. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Rev. 9, 32-47. doi: 10.1207/s15327957pspr0901_3
41. Roberts, M., Wanta, W., and Dzwo, T. H. D. (2002). Agenda setting and issue salience online. Commun. Res. 29, 452-465. doi: 10.1177/0093650202029004004
42. Sagan, C. (1995). The Demon-haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. New York, NY: Random House.
43. Scharkow, M., and Vogelgesang, J. (2011). Measuring the public agenda using search engine queries. Int. J. Public Opin. Res. 23, 104-113. doi: 10.1093/ijpor/edq048
44. Shermer, M. (1997). Why People Believe Weird Things. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.
45. Simmons, W. P., and Parsons, S. (2005). Beliefs in conspiracy theories among African Americans: a comparison of elites and masses. Soc. Sci. Q. 86, 582-598. doi: 10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00319.x
46. Sisask, M., Mark, L., and Värnik, A. (2012). Internet comments elicited by media portrayal of a familicide-suicide case. Crisis 33, 222-229. doi: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000134
47. Stewart, K. (1999). "Conspiracy theory's worlds," in Paranoia within Reason: A Casebook on Conspiracy as Explanation, ed G. E. Marcus (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press), 13-20.
48. Swami, V., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., and Furnham, A. (2010). Unanswered questions: a preliminary investigation of personality and individual difference predictors of 9/11 conspiracist beliefs. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 24, 749-761. doi: 10.1002/acp.1583
49. Swami, V., Coles, R., Stieger, S., Pietschnig, J., Furnham, A., Rehim, S., et al. (2011). Conspiracist ideation in Britain and Austria: evidence of a monological belief system and associations between individual psychological differences and real-world and fictitious conspiracy theories. Br. J. Psychol. 102, 443-463. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.2010.02004.x
50. Vogel, T., Kutzner, F., Fiedler, K., and Freytag, P. (2010). Exploiting attractiveness in persuasion: senders' implicit theories about receivers' processing motivation. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 36, 830-842. doi: 10.1177/0146167210371623
51. Whitson, J. A., and Galinsky, A. D. (2008). Lacking control increases illusory pattern perception. Science 322, 115-117. doi: 10.1126/science.1159845
52. Wood, M. J., Douglas, K. M., and Sutton, R. M. (2012). Dead and alive: beliefs in contradictory conspiracy theories. Soc. Psychol. Pers. Sci. 3, 767-773. doi: 10.1177/1948550611434786
53. WorldPublicOpinion.org (2008, September 10). No consensus on who was behind 9/11. Retrieved from http://worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/535.php?lb=btot&pnt=535&nid=&id=
54. Wright, T. L., and Arbuthnot, J. (1974). Interpersonal trust, political preference, and perception of the Watergate affair. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 1, 168-170. doi: 10.1177/014616727400100158