Disproven but still believed: The role of information and individual differences in the prediction of topic-related pseudoscience acceptance

Abstract

The spread of pseudoscience (PS) is a worrying problem worldwide. The study of pseudoscience beliefs and their associated predictors have been conducted in the context of isolated pseudoscience topics (e.g., complementary and alternative medicine). Here, we combined individual differences (IIDD) measures (e.g., personality traits, thinking styles) with measures related with the information received about PS: familiarity and disproving information (DI) in order to explore potential differences among pseudoscience topics in terms of their associated variables. These topics differed in their familiarity, their belief rating, and their associated predictors. Critically, our results not only show that DI is negatively associated with pseudoscience beliefs but that the effect of various IIDD predictors (e.g., analytic thinking) depends on whether DI had been received. This study highlights the need to control for variables related to information received about pseudoscientific claims to better understand the effect of other predictors on different pseudoscience beliefs topics.