Public and scientific interest in why people believe in conspiracy theories (CT) surged in the past years. To come up with a theoretical explanation, researchers investigated relationships of CT belief with psychological factors such as political attitudes, emotions, or personality. However, recent studies have put the robustness of these relationships into question. In the present study, a prediction-based analysis approach and machine learning models are deployed to detect and remedy poor replicability of CT belief associations. The analysis of a representative dataset with 2025 UK citizens supports the assumption that the current simplicity of the field's analysis routine, exhibiting high sample-specificity and neglecting complex associations of psychological factors with CT belief, may obscure important relationships. The results further point towards key components of conspiratorial mindsets like general distrust and low sociopolitical control. Important implications for building a coherent theory of CT belief are derived.

People often draw trait assessments of unfamiliar persons on the basis of minimal visual information like facial features. Most studies focus on explicit person evaluations, even though automatic processes of perception are the underlying basis. Furthermore, previous experiments on automatic processes only address very general levels of association. We conducted two experiments employing the multidimensional IAT (md-IAT) to examine automatic processes of perception in a more differentiated way, testing essential variables that are often used to characterize aliens. Results show that personality trait associations of people perceived and categorized as aliens (acquired solely through usage of paraphernalia) are not consistently negative in comparison to more familiar-looking people but might point to the core variables of xenophobic stereotypes (e.g., being aggressive, threatening, and untrustworthy). Proceeding in revealing such variables and testing them might help to understand the main cognito-emotive pattern behind xenophobia and help challenging and tackling stereotypes against aliens.