‘Where there are villains, there will be heroes’: Belief in conspiracy theories as an existential tool to fulfill need for meaning

What leads people to believe in conspiracy theories? In this paper, we explore the possibilitythat people might be drawn towards conspiracy theories because believing in them mightsatisfy certain existential needs and help people find meaning in their life. Through twostudies (N = 289 and 287 after exclusion), we found that participants higher in the need andsearch for meaning were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories. This relationship wasnot moderated by participants’ feelings of control. We also found that believing in conspiracytheories was associated with more presence of meaning (Study 1), and more precisely with aheightened feeling of mattering in the grand scheme of things (Study 2). Additionally, wefound that participants were more likely to endorse conspiracy theories that left them moreagency and allowed them the possibility to make a difference. Overall, we argue that ourresults suggest that people might sometimes be drawn towards conspiracy theories becausethey allow them to feel as if they can make a difference and have a positive impact on theworld, and thus that conspiracy theories can be used as tools to satisfy existential needs.