Aleksander Bjørge Gundersen

• Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Biddlestone, Mikey & Kunst, Jonas R. (2025). The Dual Impact of Believing and Spreading Conspiracy Theories: Independent and Interactive Effects on Social Perceptions and Orientations. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (QJEP). ISSN 1747-0218. doi: 10.1177/17470218251396952. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Prior research suggests that people who believe in and spread conspiracy theories are often viewed negatively, yet investigations systematically disentangling both factors are scarce. The present research addressed this gap through two pre-registered experiments with representative samples from the U.S. In Study 1, 418 participants evaluated eight fictional individuals across 3,344 trials, presented as (a) believing in and/or (b) spreading conspiracy theories in a 2 x 2 within-subjects design. Analyses revealed that both characters who believed in conspiracy theories and those who spread them were perceived as less competent, moral, and warm, and as more narcissistic, Machiavellian, and psychopathic. Moreover, both believers and spreaders were perceived as likely to engage in conspiratorial actions themselves, and participants reported lower willingness to interact with them. However, significant interactions for all variables showed that these effects were particularly pronounced for characters who spread conspiracy theories without believing in them. Notably, participants’ own conspiracy beliefs and to some extent their right-wing political orientation attenuated several effects and reversed some. In Study 2, we employed the reverse-correlation technique to model 412 participants’ mental representations of individuals who varied in belief and/or spread of conspiracy theories using a 2 x 2 between-subjects design. Results were directionally consistent with Study 1—both believers and spreaders of conspiracy theories were mentally represented less favorably—but no interactions or moderations were observed. Moreover, believing had significantly stronger effects than spreading on the rating dimensions. We discuss the social implications of these results and outline future directions.

• Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Linden, Sander van der; Piasecki, Jan; Rygula, Rafal; Noworyta, Karolina & Kunst, Jonas R. (2024). Predicting Misinformation Beliefs Across Four Countries: The Role of Narcissism, Conspiracy Mentality, Social Trust, and Perceptions of Unsafe Neighborhoods. The Journal of Social and Political Psychology. 12(2), p. 265–283. doi: 10.5964/jspp.13385. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  There are differing perspectives on the roles that social-perceptual and individual-difference factors play in explaining susceptibility to misinformation. With quota-representative samples from the U.S. (n = 492), the U.K. (n = 600), Poland (n = 558), and Germany (n = 490), we ran a comprehensive test of four social-perceptual factors (i.e., social trust, institutional trust, relative deprivation, and perceived area unsafety) and six individual-difference factors (i.e., narcissism, conspiracy mentality, closed-mindedness, need for predictability, need for order, and perceived locus of control). In terms of the social-perceptual factors, social trust and perceptions of area unsafety were consistently related to higher misinformation susceptibility across countries. In terms of individual-difference factors, narcissism and conspiracy mentality were associated with increased susceptibility to misinformation in three of the four countries. Relative deprivation and external locus of control were related to misinformation susceptibility in the pooled sample. We discuss societal implications of these findings and highlight directions for future research.

• Piksa, Michal; Noworyta, Karolina; Piasecki, Jan; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Kunst, Jonas R. & Morzy, Mikolaj [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2024). Research Report: A Link between Sertraline Treatment and Susceptibility to (Mis)information. ACS Chemical Neuroscience. 15(7), p. 1515–1522. doi: 10.1021/acschemneuro.3c00825. Full text in Research Archive
• Piksa, Michal; Noworyta, Karolina; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Kunst, Jonas R.; Morzy, Mikolaj & Piasecki, Jan [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2024). The impact of confirmation bias awareness on mitigating susceptibility to misinformation. Frontiers in Public Health. 12. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1414864. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R.; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Krysińska, Izabela; Piasecki, Jan; Wójtowicz, Tomi & Rygula, Rafal [Show all 8 contributors for this article] (2024). Leveraging artificial intelligence to identify the psychological factors associated with conspiracy theory beliefs online. Nature Communications. 15(1). doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-51740-9. Full text in Research Archive
• Piksa, Michal; Noworyta, Karolina; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Kunst, Jonas R.; Morzy, Mikoƚaj & Piasecki, Jan [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2023). Are we willing to share what we believe is true? Factors influencing susceptibility to fake news. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 14. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1165103. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R.; Coenen, Ann-Cathrin; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge & Obaidi, Milan (2023). How are acculturation orientations associated among majority-group members? The moderating role of ideology and levels of identity. International Journal of Intercultural Relations. ISSN 0147-1767. 96. doi: 10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101857. Full text in Research Archive
• Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Linden, Sander van der; Piksa, Michal; Morzy, Mikołaj; Piasecki, Jan & Rygula, Rafal [Show all 9 contributors for this article] (2023). The role of perceived minority-group status in the conspiracy beliefs of factual majority groups. Royal Society Open Science. 10(10). doi: 10.1098/rsos.221036. Full text in Research Archive
• Gwiaździński, Paweł; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge; Piksa, Michal; Krysińska, Izabela; Kunst, Jonas R. & Noworyta, Karolina [Show all 11 contributors for this article] (2023). Psychological interventions countering misinformation in social media: A scoping review. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 13. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.974782. Full text in Research Archive
• Piksa, Michal; Noworyta, Karolina; Piasecki, Jan; Gwiazdzinski, Pawel; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge & Kunst, Jonas R. [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2022). Cognitive Processes and Personality Traits Underlying Four Phenotypes of Susceptibility to (Mis)Information. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 13. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.912397. Full text in Research Archive
• Bierwiaczonek, Kinga; Gundersen, Aleksander Bjørge & Kunst, Jonas R. (2022). The role of conspiracy beliefs for COVID-19 health responses: A meta-analysis. Current Opinion in Psychology. ISSN 2352-250X. 46. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101346. Full text in Research Archive
• Gundersen, Aleksander & Kunst, Jonas R. (2018). Feminist ≠ Feminine? Feminist Women Are Visually Masculinized Whereas Feminist Men Are Feminized. Sex Roles. ISSN 0360-0025. doi: 10.1007/s11199-018-0931-7. Full text in Research Archive
• Kunst, Jonas R.; Bailey, April; Prendergast, Claire Nicole & Gundersen, Aleksander (2018). Sexism, rape myths and feminist identification explain gender differences in attitudes toward the #metoo social media campaign in two countries. Media Psychology. ISSN 1521-3269. doi: 10.1080/15213269.2018.1532300. Full text in Research Archive

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