Societal crises and stressful events are associated with an upsurge of conspiracy beliefs that may help people to tackle feelings of lack of control. In our study (N = 783), we examined whether people with higher feelings of anxiety and lack of control early in the COVID‐19 pandemic endorse more conspiracy theories. Our results show that a higher perception of risk of COVID‐19 and lower trust in institutions' response to the pandemic were related to feelings of anxiety and lack of control. Feeling the lack of control, but not anxiety, independently predicted COVID‐19 conspiracy theory endorsement. Importantly, COVID‐19 conspiracy beliefs were strongly correlated with generic conspiracy and pseudoscientific beliefs, which were likewise associated with the feeling of lack of control and lower trust in institutions. The results highlight that considering people's emotional responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic is crucial for our understanding of the spread of conspiracy and pseudoscientific beliefs.

中文翻译：

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当我们忧虑的时候，我们在想什么？COVID-19 大流行中的焦虑、失控和阴谋论

社会危机和压力事件与阴谋论信念的高涨有关，这可能有助于人们应对缺乏控制的感觉。在我们的研究 ( N = 783) 中，我们研究了在 COVID-19 大流行早期焦虑感较高且缺乏控制感的人是否更认可阴谋论。我们的结果表明，对 COVID-19 风险的较高认知和对机构应对大流行病的信任度较低与焦虑感和缺乏控制感有关。感到缺乏控制，但不是焦虑，独立预测了 COVID-19 阴谋论的认可。重要的是，COVID-19 阴谋论信念与一般阴谋论和伪科学信念密切相关，这些信念同样与缺乏控制感和对机构信任度较低有关。结果强调，考虑人们对 COVID-19 大流行的情绪反应对于我们理解阴谋和伪科学信仰的传播至关重要。