The efficacy of interventions in reducing belief in conspiracy theories: A systematic review

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dc.contributor.authorO'Mahony, Cianen
dc.contributor.authorBrassil, Maryanneen
dc.contributor.authorMurphy, Gillianen
dc.contributor.authorLinehan, Conoren
dc.contributor.editorVellucci, Pierluigien
dc.contributor.funderIrish Research Councilen
dc.contributor.funderGoogleen
dc.date.accessioned2023-04-14T09:04:35Z
dc.date.available2023-04-14T09:04:35Z
dc.date.issued2023-04-05en
dc.description.abstractConspiracy beliefs have become a topic of increasing interest among behavioural researchers. While holding conspiracy beliefs has been associated with several detrimental social, personal, and health consequences, little research has been dedicated to systematically reviewing the methods that could reduce conspiracy beliefs. We conducted a systematic review to identify and assess interventions that have sought to counter conspiracy beliefs. Out of 25 studies (total N = 7179), we found that while the majority of interventions were ineffective in terms of changing conspiracy beliefs, several interventions were particularly effective. Interventions that fostered an analytical mindset or taught critical thinking skills were found to be the most effective in terms of changing conspiracy beliefs. Our findings are important as we develop future research to combat conspiracy beliefs.en
dc.description.sponsorshipIrish Research Council (COM Grant Number: EPSPG/2021/212)en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleide028090en
dc.identifier.citationO’Mahony, C., Brassil, M., Murphy, G. and Linehan, C. (2023) ‘The efficacy of interventions in reducing belief in conspiracy theories: A systematic review’, PLOS ONE, 18(4), e0280902 (18 pp). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280902en
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0280902en
dc.identifier.endpage18en
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203en
dc.identifier.issued4en
dc.identifier.journaltitlePLOS ONEen
dc.identifier.startpage1en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/14376
dc.identifier.volume18en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherPLOSen
dc.relation.ispartofPLOS ONEen
dc.rights© 2023 O’Mahony et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.en
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectConspiracy beliefsen
dc.subjectCritical thinking skillsen
dc.subjectPriming (psychology)en
dc.subjectDatabase searchingen
dc.subjectSystematic reviewsen
dc.subjectControl theoryen
dc.subjectCross-cultural studiesen
dc.subjectPsychological attitudesen
dc.subjectConspiracy interventionsen
dc.titleThe efficacy of interventions in reducing belief in conspiracy theories: A systematic reviewen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
dc.typejournal-articleen
oaire.citation.issue4en
oaire.citation.volume18en
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