The entertainment value of conspiracy theories: a replication and extension

The current study replicated and extended the work of Van Prooijen, Ligthart, Rosema and Xu (2022). A hypothesized model was that the entertainment value of a text describing an election event predicts conspiracy beliefs through entertainment appraisals and perceived emotional intensity. Additionally, it was hypothesized that the trait sensation seeking would amplify the effects of entertainment appraisals and perceived emotional intensity on conspiracy beliefs. As an extension, analytical thinking was hypothesized to form a buffer against entertainment appraisals and perceived emotional intensity. Participants were exposed to an analytical priming test with either analytically primed words or neutral control words, after which they read an election event text that was written in an either entertaining or a boring way. Findings showed that participants had stronger conspiracy beliefs after reading the entertaining text compared to the boring text, however, this effect was not mediated by entertainment appraisals and emotional intensity. Furthermore, being primed with analytical thinking predicted lower appraisals of entertainment and lower experienced emotional intensity, though not as a moderator. Finally, sensation seeking did not significantly interact with entertainment appraisals or perceived emotional intensity. It is concluded that entertaining narratives are more likely to elicit conspiracy beliefs than boring ones.