Moralization of rationality can stimulate, but intellectual humility inhibits, sharing of hostile conspiratorial rumors

Abstract

Many assume that if citizens become more inclined to moralize the values of evidence-basedand logical thinking, political hostility and conspiracy theories would be less widespread.Across two large surveys (N = 3675) run in the U.S.A. of 2021 (one exploratory and one preregistered), we provide the first demonstration that moralization of rationality can actuallystimulate the spread of conspiratorial and hostile news. This reflects the fact that themoralization of rationality can be highly interrelated with status seeking, corroboratingarguments that self-enhancing strategies often advance hidden behind claims to objectivity and morality. In contrast to moral grandstanding on the issue of rationality, our studies find robust evidence that intellectual humility may immunize people from sharing and believing hostile conspiratorial news (i.e. the awareness that intuitions are fallible, and that suspending critique is often desirable). All associations generalized to hostile conspiratorial news both “fake” and anchored in real events.