Searching for Truth: The Impact of Conspiracy Beliefs and Cognitive Style on Online Health Information Seeking

Barcelona, Spain · May 2026

Posters · Choices & Consequences: Judgment and Decision-Making

Nathan Vital
Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie
Bastien Trémolière
Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès
Aline Chevalier
Laboratoire CLLE CNRS UMR 5263
Cheyenne Dosso
Laboratoire d'Anthropologie et de Psychologie Cliniques, Cognitives et Sociales UPR 7278

Abstract

We investigated how conspiracy beliefs and cognitive reasoning affect online health information search strategies. In an experiment, 82 participants performed a COVID-19 fact-finding task. Analytic thinking predicted a preference for official sources, whereas conspiracy beliefs predicted distrust in them. However, a debiasing intervention showed no significant impact on search strategies.

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Searching for Truth: The Impact of Conspiracy Beliefs and Cognitive Style on Online Health Information Seeking

Abstract

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