Abstract
Baseless beliefs are ideas grounded in questionable evidence that is not substantiated and may not hold up to empirical investigation. While existing research has linked cognitive processes (e.g., motivated reasoning and cognitive dissonance) to these beliefs, the role of emotions remains underexplored (e.g., the feelings-as-information theory). The current research investigates how certain constructs might influence individuals' acceptance of baseless beliefs. In Study 1, a sample of participants recruited from Prolific (n = 117) completed several psychological measures and rated their acceptance of existing baseless beliefs. Results indicated that higher levels of hostile attribution bias (HAB) and less difficulty engaging in goal-directed behavior (a facet of emotion dysregulation) were significantly associated with higher levels of baseless belief acceptance. In Study 2, we explored empirically how the manipulation of emotional appeal might influence individuals’ judgments. Two novel baseless beliefs were developed and validated (i.e., one on the topic of weather and one on the topic of Wi-Fi). Another sample of participants recruited from Prolific (n = 144) were exposed to one of three versions of each (i.e., emotion-based, information-based, or evidence-based). We found that when information was presented in an emotionally charged way, people with higher levels of HAB and less difficulty engaging in goal-directed behavior significantly increased acceptance of the weather baseless belief to the degree that acceptance levels matched evidence-based and information-based presentations. In sum, these individuals were more inclined to use their emotions to form their judgments rather than information from other sources, such as expertise or knowledge. Together, these results align with prior theoretical and empirical research. Implications and directions for future research are also discussed. Keywords: baseless beliefs, conspiracy theory, motivated reasoning, feelings-as-information, hostile attribution bias, goal-directed behavior, emotional appeal.