Science denial, conspiracy theories, and death: A study of science denial and conspiracy belief in terms of terror management theory

Even though scientific thinking revolving around proof and observation can be considered normal in today's society, those who reject science and believe in conspiracy theories that are not grounded on scientific proof still exist. This is affected by educational level, however, thinking styles (analytic and intuitional thinking), world views and religion can affect this belief as well. When existential threats like mortality is considered, individuals can be affected by the anxiety created by this threat. So, the purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between science belief, conspiracy theories, conspiracy mentality, analytic thinking, and mortality salience. In this regard, data was collected from 127 participants. Participants were assigned randomly to analytic thinking/control groups and mortality manipulation/control groups, and after that, their science belief, conspiracy belief and conspiracy mentality was measured. As a result, analytic thinking and mortality manipulation was found to be not affecting science belief. Also, mortality manipulation did not have any effect on conspiracy belief, conspiracy mentality and science belief. Conspiracy belief, conspiracy mentality and science belief was not affected by the interaction effect of analytic thinking and mortality salience. However, analytic thinking had a statistically significant effect on conspiracy belief and conspiracy mentality. Those who were on analytic thinking group were found to believe less to conspiracy beliefs and had less conspiracy mentality compared to those who were on control group. As a result, the current study replicated some of the studies conducted on the varying relationships between analytic thinking, death anxiety, conspiracy belief and conspiracy mentality.