standOff, and the article is at its publisher via the link below. When we have changed our mind. Some entries in the table begin with a word in capitals and the reason for it. EVIDENCE CORRECTED — the finding still stands, but we had quoted the wrong sentence from the paper, and the quotation has been replaced with the right one. RETRACTED — the entry itself was wrong; it stays on the page, marked, with the reason, rather than being deleted. WITHDRAWN AND REPLACED — the entry was wrong, and a corrected version of it appears in the entries below. Each mark carries its own reason, in brackets, because the reasons differ from one entry to the next. An entry we have WITHDRAWN is removed from this page and kept in the record, with its reason. A line reading Audit and a date is a later re-reading of the entry against its whole sentence: DOUBTFUL means it was kept, and the reason says what is loose about it. Quotation marks inside the tagger's sentence. Where a tag is the tagger's own sentence, a phrase in quotation marks inside it is borrowed from the paper — the tagger's wording around it is not. The paper's own sentence is the evidence quote for that row; on this page it is withheld with the article, and the article is at its publisher. Nothing inside quotation marks anywhere on this page is ours: if it is quoted, it is the paper's. Whose words a concept carries. A concept entry records a term the paper itself uses, so the term, the sense given for it, and its evidence are the paper's own words, quoted where the paper fixes them. This is the opposite of a sense entry in the tag table, which is the tagger's sentence about how the paper uses a term. Where a concept entry could not be grounded in the paper's words, the entry says so on its own row.| second reading | alternatives | an independent re-reading of a facet, recorded whether or not it agrees |
| relation to other work | claim_relations | how this paper stands to another: agrees, contradicts, extends, qualifies |
| claim type | claim_type | the shape of the claim: existence, mechanism, method, critique, prediction, null |
| concept edge | concept_edges | an asserted relation between two concepts, with the sentence asserting it |
| concept | concepts | an idea the paper works with, quoted where the paper uses it |
| content tag | content_tags | a finding, definition, quantity, statistic or variable named in the paper |
| contribution | contribution | what the paper claims to add |
| control | controls | an experiment run to eliminate a rival explanation |
| limitation | limitations | what the paper says its evidence cannot support |
| mechanism | mechanisms | how the reported effect is said to come about |
| method | method | how the paper produced its evidence |
| object of study | object_of_study | what the paper is about — the thing it investigates |
| phenomenon | phenomenon | the effect or regularity under study |
| research question | research_question | the question the paper sets itself |
| sense | senses | a distinct use of a term, quoted where the paper fixes it |
| transfer | transfers | a method or concept carried in from another field |
Relations on this page carry a quotation for the claim. Where a relation was separately evidenced — and so tested against the vocabulary for its type — the row says so; none of 3 relations here carry that mark. The rest are the tagger’s reading of the sentence quoted beside them.
| facet | tag | field | conf. | whose words |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| object_of_study | belief in conspiracy theories, and whether the motives that attract people to them are satisfied by them Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | object_of_study | the paper's words | |
| research_question | what psychological factors drive conspiracy belief, and what its consequences are for the believer Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | research_question | the paper's words | |
| contribution | a three-motive organising schema - epistemic, existential, social - and the finding that the literature answers the drivers far better than the consequences Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | contribution | the paper's words | |
| claim_type | critique Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | claim_type | the paper's words | |
| phenomenon | conspiracy belief as motivated social cognition that may thwart the very motives it answers Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | phenomenon | the paper's words | |
| method | review Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: review | method | the paper's words | |
| mechanisms | because the theory posits that conspirators use stealth and disinformation, any evidence against it can be read as part of the cover-up - including the debunker Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: immunity to disconfirmation | mechanisms[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| mechanisms | disconfirming evidence is recast as the product of a conspiracy, so a cherished belief survives contact with the evidence against it Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: belief protection by reattribution | mechanisms[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| mechanisms | attributing negative outcomes to powerful others lets the self and in-group stay competent and moral while explaining their disadvantage Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: compensatory blame | mechanisms[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | the literature answers what drives conspiracy belief far more thoroughly than what it does to the believer Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | the experimental samples are undergraduates and survey panellists who are neither threatened nor inclined to endorse conspiracy theories - not the population the claim is about Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | conspiracy theories sometimes turn out to be true, and have brought real elite misconduct to light Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| limitations | fair tests require controlled longitudinal work on disadvantaged and threatened populations, which has not been done Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | limitations[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| transfers | the epistemic / existential / social motive taxonomy, carried from system-justification theory into the study of conspiracy belief Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | transfers[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| transfers | normative standards of causal explanation from the philosophy of science, used to characterise what conspiracy theories are Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | transfers[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | evidence from the population the claim is about - people whose psychological needs are chronically or experimentally threatened Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: rival readings of the needs-to-conspiracy link - and the paper's point is that the existing samples CANNOT eliminate them, because the people studied are not the threatened population the claim is about · outcome: absent-stated-about-other | controls[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | an experimental baseline for the control manipulation, against which conspiracy belief was compared Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: a level of conspiracy belief being read as heightened when nothing establishes what the ordinary level is · outcome: held | controls[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | whether exposure to conspiracy theories helps rather than harms - tested directly rather than assumed from the correlational pattern Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: a correlation between powerlessness and conspiracy belief being read as conspiracy theories SERVING the need - the experiment tests the direction the correlation cannot · outcome: failed | controls[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| controls | whether the trust effect is specific to the institutions a given theory names Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. eliminates: a fall in institutional trust that is about the institution the theory names rather than about institutions · outcome: held | controls[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| concepts | conspiracy theories Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: conspiracy theories | concepts[0] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | epistemic Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: epistemic | concepts[1] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | existential Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: existential | concepts[2] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | social Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: social | concepts[3] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | system-justification theory Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: system-justification theory | concepts[4] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | cheater detection Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: cheater detection | concepts[5] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | collective narcissism Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: collective narcissism | concepts[6] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | anomie Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: anomie | concepts[7] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| concepts | motivated social cognition Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: motivated social cognition | concepts[8] | 0.95 | the paper's words |
| senses | 'conspiracy theory' = an explanation of an important event by secret plots of powerful and malevolent groups Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| senses | its three defining attributes are SPECULATIVE, COMPLEX and RESISTANT TO FALSIFICATION - properties of the explanation's form, not its content Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| senses | each attribute is the negation of a normative standard for causal explanation - empirically warranted, parsimonious, falsifiable Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| senses | the three-motive taxonomy is called 'a useful HEURISTIC', borrowed from system-justification theory rather than derived Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| senses | 'more appealing than satisfying' - the paper's own summary of the gap between what draws people and what they get Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | senses[4] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| alternatives | claim_type: mechanism Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. a second reading DIFFERING from the recorded value. Recorded: critique — note: A BLIND second reading by the project on 2026-08-25: the record's own claim type/method/phenomenon were not looked at until every value here was written and substring-verified. Not applied - a person decides. Sampling frame: the 504 staged records carrying no alternatives block, so this never re-measures the 202. All 11 records with 130+ tags were taken as a census and 19 more spread one per discipline across 22 disciplines - the dense non-neuroscience cell is the one the 202 do not contain (inside them, 94-100% of the densest bands are neuroscience; among these 11, one is)., | alternatives.claim_type | 0.6 | the tagger's words |
| alternatives | method: review Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. a second reading DIFFERING from the recorded value. Recorded: review — note: A BLIND second reading by the project on 2026-08-25: the record's own claim type/method/phenomenon were not looked at until every value here was written and substring-verified. Not applied - a person decides. Sampling frame: the 504 staged records carrying no alternatives block, so this never re-measures the 202. All 11 records with 130+ tags were taken as a census and 19 more spread one per discipline across 22 disciplines - the dense non-neuroscience cell is the one the 202 do not contain (inside them, 94-100% of the densest bands are neuroscience; among these 11, one is)., | alternatives.method | 0.8 | the tagger's words |
| alternatives | phenomenon: the epistemic, existential and social motives that draw people to conspiracy theories Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. a second reading DIFFERING from the recorded value. Recorded: conspiracy belief as motivated social cognition that may thwart the very motives it answers — note: A BLIND second reading by the project on 2026-08-25: the record's own claim type/method/phenomenon were not looked at until every value here was written and substring-verified. Not applied - a person decides. Sampling frame: the 504 staged records carrying no alternatives block, so this never re-measures the 202. All 11 records with 130+ tags were taken as a census and 19 more spread one per discipline across 22 disciplines - the dense non-neuroscience cell is the one the 202 do not contain (inside them, 94-100% of the densest bands are neuroscience; among these 11, one is)., | alternatives.phenomenon | 0.85 | the tagger's words |
| claim_relations | qualifies → early theories holding that conspiracy belief gives compensatory satisfaction when needs are threatened Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. note: the attraction is confirmed and the compensation is not - people turn to them when threatened, and are left less in control | claim_relations[0] | the tagger's words | |
| claim_relations | builds-on → system-justification theory, from which the three-motive taxonomy is taken Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | claim_relations[1] | the tagger's words | |
| claim_relations | distinguishes-from → the normative standards of causal explanation used in science Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. note: the definition of the object of study is stated as the negation of those standards | claim_relations[2] | the tagger's words | |
| concept_edges | conspiracy theories —is-a→ motivated social cognition Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. strength of the relation: 0.85 · note: offered as a possibility rather than asserted - 'might be seen as an ironic or self-defeating manifestation'
Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but conspiracy theories 'might be seen as' a manifestation of motivated social cognition; hedged. also in: conspiracy theories · motivated social cognition | concept_edges[0] | the tagger's words | |
| concept_edges | conspiracy theories —causes→ anomie Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. direction on the measure: increases · strength of the relation: 0.85 · direction on the measure (stated by the tagger, no quotation): increases · note: the paper states this as plausible and bidirectional - 'not only a symptom but also a cause'
Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but it is 'plausible' that conspiracy theories cause anomie; hedged. also in: conspiracy theories · anomie | concept_edges[2] | the tagger's words | |
| concept_edges | collective narcissism —causes→ conspiracy theories Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. status: ASSOCIATIONAL, IN A REVIEW OF SURVEY FINDINGS: 'conspiracy belief is associated with narcissism ... Conspiracy belief is also predicted by collective narcissism'. 'Associated with' and 'predicted by' are the paper's own verbs, and the edge type is stronger than either. · direction on the measure: increases · strength of the relation: 0.85 · direction on the measure (stated by the tagger, no quotation): increases
Audit 2026-09-28: DOUBTFUL - read against its full span and kept, but the span writes 'conspiracy belief', not 'conspiracy theories' (named in the previous sentence). also in: collective narcissism · conspiracy theories | concept_edges[3] | the tagger's words | |
| content_tags | Conspiracy belief appears to stem from epistemic, existential and social motives; research has yet to show it serves them. Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.findings[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | exposure suppresses the sense of autonomy and control and reduces willingness to vote or engage in party politics Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.findings[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | exposure decreases trust in governmental institutions even when the theory is unrelated to them Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.findings[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | conspiracy belief correlates with lower analytic thinking, lower education, and perceiving agency where there is none Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.findings[3] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | conspiracy theories Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: conspiracy theories | content_tags.definitions[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | collective narcissism Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: collective narcissism | content_tags.definitions[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | anomie Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: anomie | content_tags.definitions[2] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | correlational association between conspiracy belief and analytic thinking Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. | content_tags.statistics[0] | 0.85 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | conspiracy belief Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: conspiracy belief | content_tags.variables[0] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
| content_tags | narcissism Quotation withheld — this record is not cleared for redistribution. The sentence is in the paper at the link above. also in: narcissism | content_tags.variables[1] | 0.95 | the tagger's words |
Tags that could not be placed in the text:
What was deliberately not tagged, and why, is recorded per paper by the tagger. Where a paper has no such record, this page says so rather than implying that nothing was declined.