Many citizens around the globe believe conspiracy theories. Why are conspiracy theories so appealing? Here, we propose that conspiracy theories elicit intense emotions independent of emotional valence. People therefore find conspiracy theories entertaining – that is, narratives that people perceive as interesting, exciting, and attention-grabbing – and such entertainment appraisals are positively associated with belief in them. Five studies supported these ideas. Participants were exposed to either a conspiratorial or a non-conspiratorial text about the Notre Dame fire (Study 1) or the death of Jeffrey Epstein (preregistered Study 2). The conspiratorial text elicited stronger entertainment appraisals and intense emotions (independent of emotional valence) than the non-conspiratorial text; moreover, entertainment appraisals mediated the effects of the manipulation on conspiracy beliefs. Study 3 indicated that participants endorsed stronger conspiracy beliefs when an election event was described in an entertaining rather than a boring manner. Subsequent findings revealed that both organisational (Study 4) and societal conspiracy beliefs (Study 5) are positively associated with sensation seeking – a trait characterised by a preference for exciting and intense experiences. We conclude that one reason why people believe conspiracy theories is because they find them entertaining.

中文翻译：

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阴谋论的娱乐价值

全球许多公民都相信阴谋论。为什么阴谋论如此吸引人？在这里，我们建议阴谋论引发强烈的情绪独立于情绪效价。因此，人们发现阴谋论很有趣——即人们认为有趣、令人兴奋和引人注目的叙述——而这种娱乐性评价与对它们的信仰呈正相关。五项研究支持这些观点。参与者接触到关于巴黎圣母院火灾（研究 1）或杰弗里·爱泼斯坦之死（预注册研究 2）的阴谋或非阴谋文本。与非阴谋文本相比，阴谋文本引起了更强的娱乐评价和强烈的情绪（独立于情绪价）；此外，娱乐性评价调节了操纵对阴谋信念的影响。研究3表明，当参与者以娱乐性而不是无聊的方式描述选举事件时，参与者认可更强的阴谋信念。随后的研究结果表明，组织（研究 4）和社会阴谋信念（研究 5）都与感觉寻求呈正相关——这种特征的特征是偏爱令人兴奋和激烈的体验。我们得出结论，人们相信阴谋论的一个原因是他们觉得阴谋论很有趣。