What They Don't Tell You About Conspiracy Theories: Genius-Driven Science and Informal Science Communication Predict Susceptibility to Conspiracy Beliefs

Conspiracy beliefs can negatively impact personal health, democratic engagement, and intergroup relationships. Pop-science communication often uses narrative elements such as mystery, chance, twists, and hero-journey-like narratives to make its contents more palatable. In this way, a specific conception of scientific progress is promoted: in the beginning, everyone is wrong and blinded by prejudice; the genius arrives with the exact solution; this is mocked or considered insane until everyone realizes that he was right from the beginning. We hypothesized that a genius-driven view of science and a preference for informal science communication could influence conspiracy beliefs. To evaluate this, we administered a 104-item questionnaire to 843 U.S. residents. Genius mentality and informal science significantly predicted higher conspiracy belief, while trust in science and scientists were strong negative predictors. Importantly, genius mentality moderated the relationship between trust in science and conspiracy belief. Informal science moderated the relationship between education and genius mentality. These findings suggest that genius mentality and informal science communication influence the perception of science by promoting trust in figures isolated from the mainstream scientific community. The resulting worldview could lead to overestimating the influence individuals or small groups can have on complex social systems directly influencing conspiracy beliefs.