On the Relation Between Religiosity and the Endorsement of Conspiracy Theories: The Role of Political Orientation

Religious and conspiracy beliefs share the feature of assuming powerful forces that determine fate world. Correspondingly, they have been theorized to address similar psychological needs be based on cognitions, but there exist little authoritative answers about their relationship. We delineate two theory-driven possibilities. If theories religions serve as surrogates for each other by fulfilling needs, should negatively correlated. religious stem from same values this would speak a positive correlation might diminished—for example—by controlling shared political ideologies. approached question with meta-analysis (N = 10,242), partial correlations large Christian-dominated datasets Germany, Poland, United States 12,612), preregistered U.S. study 500). The results indicate between religiosity theory endorsement were positive, orientation parts covariance. Correlations more need-related mentality differed countries. conclude similarities in explanatory style ideologies seem central relation intrinsic endorsing theories, only play minor role.