Objective: People often encounter conspiracy theories, which refer to claims that individuals work together to achieve a secret goal in daily life. For example, people may read news claiming politicians have stolen the elections or the government has hidden information from the public. Research has shown that mere exposure to conspiracy theories increases aggression. However, it is unclear whether certain dispositional factors, such as mindfulness, may buffer this effect. To address this knowledge gap, this study examined whether dispositional mindfulness weakens the effect of exposure to conspiracy theories on aggression.
Methods: Our final sample consisted of 393 participants (68 men, 325 women; Mage = 21.65, SD = 3.26). Participants first filled out a validated measure of dispositional mindfulness. Next, they read a social media article describing the election result. By random assignment, participants in the conspiracy condition read that the defeated candidate asserted that the election was rigged, whereas participants in the control condition read that the defeated candidate accepted the election results. Finally, their aggression was assessed by the noise blast paradigm.
Results: Dispositional mindfulness moderated the effect of conspiracy exposure on aggression. After exposure to conspiracy theories, participants with low mindfulness behaved more aggressively than their counterparts with high mindfulness.
Conclusion: This research highlights the significance of dispositional mindfulness in weakening individuals' aggressive responses following exposure to conspiracy theories.