Karen Douglas

Karen Douglas (academic, editor)
Member of	COMPACT - Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories
Interests	conspiracy theories
An academic interested in why people believe in "conspiracy theories"

Professor Karen M. Douglas is an academic interested in "conspiracy theories". She has over 100 publications. She has been widely cited by commercially-controlled media on topics such as COVID-19. She reports that "Once people firmly believe in conspiracy theories, it is very difficult to convince them otherwise. At the moment, we don't know a great deal about what works."

Career

As of 2020 Karen Douglas was working in the School of Psychology at the University of Kent. She is a member of Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories (COMPACT), where organized 4-day Training School for "the next generation of researchers", (eligible for a stipend of up to €1,000), where "the participants will have the opportunity to discuss their projects and plans with the group, and on an individual basis with the Trainers."

Interests

Douglas reports "My primary research focus is on beliefs in conspiracy theories. I am also interested in the social psychology of human communication, including the psychology of sexist language, and communication on the Internet."

 

Quotes by Karen Douglas

Page	Quote	Date	Source
"Conspiracy theory/Academic research"	“Work in online misinformation details how alternative media intentionally fabricate conspiracy theories, spreading false allegations ranging from reptilian presidents to staged terrorist attacks”	June 2017	Current Directions in Psychological Science https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317401748 The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
"Conspiracy theory/Academic research"	“history has repeatedly shown that corporate and political elites do conspire against public interests. Conspiracy theories play an important role in bringing their misdeeds into the light.”	June 2017	Current Directions in Psychological Science https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317401748 The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
"Conspiracy theory/Academic research"	“they are emotional given that negative emotions and not rational deliberations cause conspiracy beliefs... One limitation... is that the field is lacking a solid theoretical framework that contextualizes previous findings, that enables novel predictions, and that suggests interventions to reduce the prevalence of conspiracy theories in society.”	2018	Belief in conspiracy theories: Basic principles of an emerging research domain https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2530
Conspiracy belief	“belief in conspiracy theories is positively associated with intuitive rather than analytic thinking. Consistently, higher education predicts lower conspiracy beliefs, a finding that is partly mediated by a tendency among the less educated to attribute agency and intentionality where it does not exist, and stronger analytic thinking skills among the higher educated.”	2018	Belief in conspiracy theories: Basic principles of an emerging research domain
Conspiracy theories/Academic research/Projection	“they are emotional given that negative emotions and not rational deliberations cause conspiracy beliefs; and they are social as conspiracy beliefs are closely associated with psychological motivations underlying intergroup conflict”	2018	Belief in conspiracy theories: Basic principles of an emerging research domain

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