Correlations Among High School Students' Beliefs about Conspiracy, Authoritarianism, and Scientific Literacy

Abstract

Studies consistently show the social impact of spreading epistemologically unfounded beliefs (or ‘conspiracy beliefs’), including negative effects on public health. The present study identified correlations among epistemologically unfounded beliefs, authoritarianism, and scientific literacy in a representative sample of 303 Slovak secondary school students, using the Epistemologically Unfounded Beliefs Scale, Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale, and Scientific Reasoning Scale. Statistical analysis confirmed significant correlations among the three variables. The findings suggest that increasing scientific literacy could simultaneously reduce authoritarianism and epistemologically unfounded beliefs in secondary school students.