Project APVV-25-0338
Project duration: 1.9.2026 - 31.8.2030
Principal investigator:
Vladimíra Čavojová
Co-investigators:
Matej Lorko
Michael Hattersley
Jakub Šrol
Rastislav Janičík
Ivana Jakubová
Veronika Pekárová
Annotation:
Conspiracy theories and disinformation have become a salient feature of contemporary political life, contributing to democratic erosion, political polarization, and resistance to expert guidance. Despite their disruptive societal impact, psychological research has not yet provided an integrated account of why conspiracy beliefs are so appealing, when they translate into behaviour and influence decisions, and how they can be effectively addressed.
Drawing on political, cognitive and social psychology, and behavioral economics, the project proposes an integrated, context-sensitive framework that reconceptualizes conspiracy beliefs as utility-relevant choices rather than failures of epistemic judgment.
Across three interlinked work packages, the project (WP1) develops and tests a formal model explaining how individuals balance epistemic accuracy, identity-based motivations, and cognitive costs when endorsing and acting on conspiracy narratives, (WP2) investigates how conspiracy beliefs regulate interaction with information environments, in form of selective sampling and jumping to conclusions, and (WP3) designs and evaluates identity-aligned interventions that target behaviour and engagement rather than belief correction alone.
A key contribution of the project is the systematic investigation of when beliefs translate into behaviour and when they remain expressive or symbolic. This addresses a major shortcoming of conspiracy research to date, which has largely relied on self-reported beliefs without examining their behavioral relevance. Project insights will enable the development of identity-sensitive and context-aware (“next-generation”) interventions that go beyond fact-checking and debunking, and reduce the likelihood of reactance, disengagement, and backfire effects, which currently limit the effectiveness of many public information campaigns.
Key words: conspiracy beliefs, social identity, interaction with information environment, expressive vs. symbolic beliefs, interventions
