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Paranoia and conspiracy thinking

Anna Greenburgh¹, Nichola J Raihani¹

¹Department of Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK.

Current Opinion in Psychology

|June 29, 2022

Abstract:

Paranoia and conspiracy thinking share many risk factors, such as victimization, poverty and social isolation. They also have many phenomenological features in common, including heightened tendency to attribute negative outcomes to malevolent agents and idiosyncratic pattern detection. Nevertheless, paranoia and conspiracy thinking also differ in key respects. Specifically, paranoid thoughts tend to be held in isolation and involve perceptions of harm to the self. Conspiracy beliefs, on the other hand, are shared by others and involve the perception of collective rather than personal harm. We discuss the similarities and differences between paranoia and conspiracy thinking and outline fruitful avenues for future research.

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