Believing in Hidden Plots is Associated with Decreased Behavioral Trust: Conspiracy Belief as Greater Sensitivity to Social Threat or Insensitivity Towards its Absence?

Past research has demonstrated that conspiracy belief is linked to a low level of self-reported general trust. In four experimental online studies (total N = 1105) we examined whether this relationship translated into actual behavior. Specifically, since the decision to trust relies on the ability to detect potential social threat, we tested whether conspiracy believers are better at detecting actual threat, worse at detecting the absence of threat, or simply trust less, irrespective of any social cue. To this end, participants played multiple, independent rounds of the trust game, a behavioral measure for interpersonal trust. We manipulated social threat by presenting photographs of their alleged trustees with varying intensity of facial anger. In three of the four studies, trustors’ conspiracy beliefs predicted a more cautious investment behavior in the trust game. This association, however, was not contingent on the social threat posed by the trustee. The present research thus joins a number of studies demonstrating that conspiracy beliefs can – under certain circumstances - influence everyday behavior.

既往研究表明，阴谋论信念与自我报告的总体信任度偏低之间存在关联。在本研究中，我们通过四项在线实验（总计参与者数量为1105人）探讨了这种关联是否能够转化为实际行为。具体而言，鉴于信任的决定依赖于检测潜在社会威胁的能力，我们检验了阴谋论者是否在检测实际威胁方面更为出色，在检测威胁缺失方面更为不足，或者不论任何社会线索，均表现出较低的信任。为此，参与者参与了多轮独立的信任游戏，这是一种衡量人际信任的行为指标。我们通过展示不同面部愤怒强度的照片来操纵社会威胁感。在四项研究中的三项中，信任者的阴谋论信念预测了在信任游戏中更加谨慎的投资行为。然而，这种关联并非依赖于受托者所引发的社会威胁。因此，当前研究加入了一系列研究，表明在某些情况下，阴谋论信念可以——在一定程度上——影响日常行为。