Examining Conspiracist Beliefs About the Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that conspiracist ideation forms part of a monological belief system in which one conspiracist idea acts as evidence for new conspiracist ideas. Here, we examined this possibility in relation to an event lacking reliable or conclusive evidence, namely the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan. A total of 914 members of the British general public completed scales measuring their beliefs about the disappearance of Earhart and Noonan, belief in conspiracy theories, the Big Five personality factors, support for democratic principles, political cynicism, self-esteem, and self-assessed intelligence. Results showed that belief in conspiracy theories was associated with the endorsement of less plausible explanations for the disappearance of Earhart and Noonan. In addition, belief in less plausible explanations was also significantly associated with lower self-assessed intelligence, greater political cynicism, lower self-esteem, and higher Agreeableness scores. These results are discussed in relation to monological belief systems.

Associations between belief in conspiracy theories and the maladaptive personality traits of the personality inventory for DSM-5

“…believing that Earhart and Noonan intentionally downed their aircraft so that the U.S. Navy could spy on the Japanese may be implausible, but it is not entirely impossible (Swami & Furnham, 2012). Indeed, a common feature of many conspiracy theories is that they present alternative explanations of events that are possible, even if improbable.…”

“…Clearly, some conspiracy theories fit this categorisation: to return to the example we provided earlier, believing that Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan unwittingly made contact with aliens and were abducted during their final flight is delusional (Swami & Furnham, 2012), given the lack of evidence for the specific claim or for the existing aliens. This being the case, individuals who experience maladaptive cognitive-perceptual processing may be more likely to accept a range of beliefs that are anomalous.…”

“…Openness to Experience and belief in conspiracy theories that has been reported in several CONSPIRACY THEORIES 12 studies (Swami et al, 2010(Swami et al, , 2011, but not others (Swami & Furnham, 2012 Moreover, Openness appears to be associated with the PID-5 domain of Psychoticism, sometimes in opposing directions (Chmielewski, Babgy, Markon, Ring, & Ryder, 2014).…”

“…For example, some people believe that, rather than crashing at sea, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan intentionally downed their aircraft near Japanese occupied territory so that the U.S. Navy could spy on the Japanese during the subsequent rescue mission (Swami & Furnham, 2012). Such beliefs are widespread: data from four nationally representative surveys have shown that half of the American public endorse at least one conspiracy theory (Oliver & Wood, 2014).…”

“…That is, by using broad dimensions that span normative and pathological functioning, it becomes possible to develop a reliable scaffold to understand the nature of conspiracist ideation. In addition, given evidence that the DSM-5 dimensional trait model are maladaptive variants of general personality structure (e.g., Gore & Widiger, 2013), a focus on the former may help to explicate mixed and typically weak associations between conspiracist ideation and the Big Five personality domains (Swami, ChamorroPremuzic, & Furnham, 2010;Swami et al, 2011;Swami & Furnham, 2012).…”