How Conspiracy-Minded Are You?
Not what you believe about any one event, but the lens you look through
Researchers noticed something odd decades ago: people who believe one conspiracy theory tend to believe others, even ones that contradict each other. That suggested the beliefs were less about evidence for a particular story than about a general way of reading the world - one in which big events are rarely what they seem and someone out of sight is usually pulling the strings. This test measures that general lens, and three of the needs that research suggests feed it.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
No statement here is about a real event, group or person. Answer about your general sense of how the world works.
What it measures
Conspiracy mentality: a general readiness to explain events through secret plots by powerful people, measured without reference to any specific theory. Three related motives from the research sit alongside it - a need for complete explanations, a sense of powerlessness, and a need to see things others miss. It differs from general distrust of people, which the site's trust test covers: this is about how you explain public events, not whether you trust the people close to you.
Based on: Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (Bruder, Haffke, Neave, Nouripanah & Imhoff, 2013)
Possible results
Conspiracy mentality
How readily you explain events as the work of hidden, powerful groups.
Need for a full explanation
How much loose ends and pure chance bother you.
Sense of powerlessness
How far you feel that what happens to you is decided elsewhere.
Need to see what others miss
How much you value holding views and knowledge that set you apart.
Common questions
Is being sceptical the same as conspiracy thinking?
No, though they can look alike from outside. Scepticism asks for evidence and changes its mind when the evidence arrives. Conspiracy mentality starts from the assumption that the official story is false and tends to treat missing evidence as proof of a cover-up. The difference is less in what you doubt than in what would convince you.
Why do people believe conspiracy theories?
A widely cited review groups the reasons into three needs: to understand what is happening, to feel safe and in control, and to feel good about yourself and your group. Conspiracy explanations seem to promise all three. The same review notes that they often fail to deliver, and may leave people feeling more powerless rather than less.
Aren't some conspiracies real?
Yes - price-fixing, cover-ups and secret agreements are well documented. That is exactly why researchers measure a general mentality rather than belief in any one claim. The question is not whether conspiracies ever happen but whether you reach for one as the default explanation, before looking at the evidence.
Sources
- Bruder, M., Haffke, P., Neave, N., Nouripanah, N., & Imhoff, R. (2013). Measuring individual differences in generic beliefs in conspiracy theories across cultures: Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire. Frontiers in Psychology. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00225
- Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., & Cichocka, A. (2017). The psychology of conspiracy theories. Current Directions in Psychological Science. doi:10.1177/0963721417718261
- Imhoff, R., & Lamberty, P. K. (2017). Too special to be duped: Need for uniqueness motivates conspiracy beliefs. European Journal of Social Psychology. doi:10.1002/ejsp.2265
An honest note The items are Quinthea's own wording, adapted from the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire, so scores are not comparable with its published norms. That questionnaire yields one score: only the first bar corresponds to it. The other three are related motives from the research literature, not validated factors of the scale. Scores also shift with context - trust in institutions differs a lot between countries, and in some places suspicion is simply well founded.