About CONSPICIOUS
From disinformation operations to populist rhetoric and foreign propaganda, the ongoing illiberal attacks on liberal democracies aim to spread and exploit a CONSPICIOUS (conspiracist + suspicious) mindset among the public. The rise of CONSPICIOUS mindset at the centre stage of policy concerns has led to two major streams of research. First, research on conspiracy beliefs (CBs) has highlighted psychological risk factors and documented the extent of CBs negative behavioural consequences - e.g., fuelling violent extremism, vaccine hesitancy, support for autocrats and illiberal political parties. Second, the growing awareness of societal harms stemming from CBs has also generated a prolific research program focused on misinformation and mostly online and cognitive interventions to curb its prevalence. Contrary to research efforts to date, the current CONSPICIOUS project stems from the understanding of CBs as intergroup attitudes and hypothesizes that interventions that focus on improving intergroup attitudes may prove at least as effective in curbing CBs as the already well-researched cognitive approaches. The overarching aim of CONSPICIOUS is thus to shift scholarly focus towards dealing with CBs directly as intergroup attitudes. We argue that, if supported by a large-scale empirical test, the understanding of CBs as intergroup attitudes could become a compelling and productive research avenue for future interventions with important implications for policy-making aimed at curbing disinformation.
Why join CONSPICIOUS
Participation in CONSPICIOUS is associated with an exciting large scale and cooperative research endeavour.
Project budget will cover the costs of Prolific data collection for up to 36 design teams (DTs) giving an opportunity to participate also for researchers with limited budget.
Selected design teams will gain co-authorship on a joint paper intended for submission to one of the leading scientific journals in the field.
Project is supported by funding from the Czech Science Foundation (grant no. GA26-20984S).