"For a study published in 2016 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, researchers had volunteers write about a recent unpleasant experience they had with friends and rate how excluded they felt.
Then they answered questions relating to their search for purpose in life and their beliefs surrounding various conspiracies, such as "Pharmaceutical companies withhold cures for financial reasons" and "events in the Bermuda Triangle constitute evidence of paranormal.
The more excluded the participants felt, the more they desired meaning in their lives and the more likely they were to believe in the conspiracy theories.
That experiment proved that there was an association between feeling excluded and harboring alternative beliefs..." curiosity.com/topics/soci...racy-theorists-curiosity? utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=20170512fbk00CRSTconspir&utm_term=01so cia lsciences&utm_content=link182">Click for Full Text!
Poster Comment:
Do conspiracy theorists feel lonely because everyone else is "sheep" and they are "woke", or does loneliness cause people to use conspiracy theories as a crutch?
Curious people want to know, apparently...