Stefan Stieger

Conspiracist ideation in Britain and Austria: Evidence of a monological belief system and associations between individual psychological differences and real-world and fictitious conspiracy theories

Despite evidence of widespread belief in conspiracy theories, there remains a dearth of research on the individual difference correlates of conspiracist ideation. In two studies, we sought to overcome this limitation by examining correlations between conspiracist ideation and a range of individual psychological factors. In Study 1, 817 Britons indicated their agreement with conspiracist ideation concerning the July 7, 2005 (7/7), London bombings, and completed a battery of individual difference scales. Results showed that stronger belief in 7/7 conspiracy theories was predicted by stronger belief in other real-world conspiracy theories, greater exposure to conspiracist ideation, higher political cynicism, greater support for democratic principles, more negative attitudes to authority, lower self-esteem, and lower Agreeableness. In Study 2, 281 Austrians indicated their agreement with an entirely fictitious conspiracy theory and completed a battery of individual difference measures not examined in Study 1. Results showed that belief in the entirely fictitious conspiracy theory was significantly associated with stronger belief in other real-world conspiracy theories, stronger paranormal beliefs, and lower crystallized intelligence. These results are discussed in terms of the potential of identifying individual difference constellations among conspiracy theorists.

German translation and psychometric evaluation of the Body Appreciation Scale.

This paper examined the psychometric properties of the German version of the Body Appreciation Scale (BAS), a novel scale for the assessment of positive body image. Based on a community sample of 156 women and 144 men in Austria, results showed good internal reliability and construct validity for the BAS scores, as well as a unidimensional factor structure for both women and men. Specifically, Cronbachs alpha was high for both women (alpha=.90) and men (alpha=.85), and the BAS was correlated with the body esteem scale and self-esteem. In addition, women with lower BMIs reported greater body appreciation, but no such association was found for men. Finally, there were small sex differences in BAS scores, with men scoring more positively than women (Cohens d=0.26). The German BAS, a useful indicator of positive body image among Austrian adults, should prove valuable for the assessment of body image in German-speaking countries.

Who Commits Virtual Identity Suicide? Differences in Privacy Concerns, Internet Addiction, and Personality Between Facebook Users and Quitters

Social networking sites such as Facebook attract millions of users by offering highly interactive social communications. Recently, a counter movement of users has formed, deciding to leave social networks by quitting their accounts (i.e., virtual identity suicide). To investigate whether Facebook quitters (n=310) differ from Facebook users (n=321), we examined privacy concerns, Internet addiction scores, and personality. We found Facebook quitters to be significantly more cautious about their privacy, having higher Internet addiction scores, and being more conscientious than Facebook users. The main self-stated reason for committing virtual identity suicide was privacy concerns (48 percent). Although the adequacy of privacy in online communication has been questioned, privacy is still an important issue in online social communications.

Response to Comment on "Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science"

Gilbert et al. conclude that evidence from the Open Science Collaboration’s Reproducibility Project: Psychology indicates high reproducibility, given the study methodology. Their very optimistic assessment is limited by statistical misconceptions and by causal inferences from selectively interpreted, correlational data. Using the Reproducibility Project: Psychology data, both optimistic and pessimistic conclusions about reproducibility are possible, and neither are yet warranted.

Analytic thinking reduces belief in conspiracy theories

Belief in conspiracy theories has been associated with a range of negative health, civic, and social outcomes, requiring reliable methods of reducing such belief. Thinking dispositions have been highlighted as one possible factor associated with belief in conspiracy theories, but actual relationships have only been infrequently studied. In Study 1, we examined associations between belief in conspiracy theories and a range of measures of thinking dispositions in a British sample (N=990). Results indicated that a stronger belief in conspiracy theories was significantly associated with lower analytic thinking and open-mindedness and greater intuitive thinking. In Studies 2-4, we examined the causational role played by analytic thinking in relation to conspiracist ideation. In Study 2 (N=112), we showed that a verbal fluency task that elicited analytic thinking reduced belief in conspiracy theories. In Study 3 (N=189), we found that an alternative method of eliciting analytic thinking, which related to cognitive disfluency, was effective at reducing conspiracist ideation in a student sample. In Study 4, we replicated the results of Study 3 among a general population sample (N=140) in relation to generic conspiracist ideation and belief in conspiracy theories about the July 7, 2005, bombings in London. Our results highlight the potential utility of supporting attempts to promote analytic thinking as a means of countering the widespread acceptance of conspiracy theories.

Looking good: factors affecting the likelihood of having cosmetic surgery

The present study examined various factors associated with the likelihood of having cosmetic surgery in a community sample of Austrian participants. One-hundred and sixty-eight women and 151 men completed a questionnaire measuring how likely they were to consider common cosmetic procedures. The results showed that women were more likely than men to consider most cosmetic procedures. Path analysis revealed that personal experience of having had cosmetic surgery was a significant predictor of future likelihood, while media exposure (viewing advertisements or television programs, or reading articles about cosmetic surgery) mediated the influence of vicarious experience and sex. These results are discussed in relation to previous work examining the factors associated with the likelihood of having cosmetic surgery.

What are participants doing while filling in an online questionnaire: A paradata collection tool and an empirical study

The use of online questionnaires is rapidly increasing. Contrary to manifold advantages, not much is known about user behavior that can be measured outside the boundaries set by standard web technologies like HTML form elements. To show how the lack of knowledge about the user setting in web studies can be accounted for, we present a tool called UserActionTracer, with which it is possible to collect more behavior information than with any other paradata gathering tool, in order to (1) gather additional data unobtrusively from the process of answering questions and (2) to visualize individual user behavior on web pages. In an empirical study on a large web sample (N=1046) we observed and analysed online behaviors (e.g., clicking through). We found that only 10.5% of participants showed more than five single behaviors with highly negative influence on data quality in the whole online questionnaire (out of 132 possible single behavior judgments). Furthermore, results were validated by comparison with data from online address books. With the UserActionTracer it is possible to gain further insight into the process of answering online questionnaires.

Implicit and explicit self-esteem in the context of internet addiction.

Previous research has repeatedly found that people suffering from some clinical disorders (e.g., bulimia nervosa, depression) possess low explicit (i.e., conscious, deliberate) self-esteem while at the same time displaying high implicit (i.e., unconscious, automatic) self-esteem. This phenomenon has been termed damaged self-esteem and was proposed to be an indicator of psychological distress. Although Internet addiction has been found to be associated with low levels of explicit self-esteem, as well as with high levels of psychological distress, its relation to implicit self-esteem has, to our knowledge, not been investigated thus far. We therefore hypothesized that the phenomenon of damaged self-esteem could also be found amongst people suffering from Internet addiction, and conducted two studies using the Initial Preference Task as a measure of implicit self-esteem. As expected, we found that individuals scoring high on Internet addiction possess low explicit and high implicit self-esteem. This effect was, however, only found for the first name initial of the Initial Preference Task, leading to the conclusion that first and last name initials might tap into different parts of implicit self-esteem.

Let's Go Formative: Continuous Student Ratings with Web 2.0 Application Twitter

Student ratings have been a controversial but important method for the improvement of teaching quality during the past several decades. Most universities rely on summative evaluations conducted at the end of a term or course. A formative approach in which each course unit is evaluated may be beneficial for students and teachers but has rarely been applied. This is most probably due to the time constraints associated with various procedures inherent in formative evaluation (numerous evaluations, high amounts of aggregated data, high administrative investment). In order to circumvent these disadvantages, we chose the Web 2.0 Internet application Twitter as evaluation tool and tested whether it is useful for the implementation of a formative evaluation. After a first pilot and subsequent experimental study, the following conclusions were drawn: First, the formative evaluation did not come to the same results as the summative evaluation at the end of term, suggesting that formative evaluations tap into different aspects of course evaluation than summative evaluations do. Second, the results from an offline (i.e., paper-pencil) summative evaluation were identical with those from an online summative evaluation of the same course conducted a week later. Third, the formative evaluation did not influence the ratings of the summative evaluation at the end of the term. All in all, we can conclude that Twitter is a useful tool for evaluating a course formatively (i.e., on a weekly basis). Because of Twitters simple use and the electronic handling of data, the administrative effort remains small.

A cross-cultural investigation of suicidal behavior and attitudes in Austrian and Turkish medical students

PurposeThis cross-cultural study investigated the prevalence of suicidal behavior and attitudes towards suicide and reactions to suicidal individuals in 320 Austrian and 326 Turkish medical students.MethodsData were collected using a self-report questionnaire consisting of sections on demographic information, suicidal behavior, current mood, religiosity, attitudes towards suicide, and reactions to suicidal individuals.ResultsMore Austrian (37.8%) than Turkish (27.3%) students reported life-time, past 12-month, or current suicidal ideation, while more Turkish (6.4%) than Austrian (2.2%) students reported life-time or past 12-month suicide attempts. Austrian students had more permissive and liberal attitudes towards suicide, while those of Turkish students were more rejecting. Conversely, attitudes of Turkish medical students towards an imagined suicidal close friend were more accepting than those of Austrian medical students. Comparisons of suicidal versus nonsuicidal students showed that those reporting suicidal ideation or suicide attempts generally were more accepting of suicide and viewed suicide as a solution to a greater extent than the nonsuicidal group.ConclusionThe findings suggest that cultural factors play a role in observed country differences in suicidal ideation and behavior and in attitudes towards suicide and reactions to suicidality among Austrian and Turkish medical students.