2.3.5. Analytic Thinking
Thinking style plays an important role in this context because beliefs in conspiracy theories depend on human judgment. Many studies investigate the connections between analytic and heuristic thinking and beliefs in conspiracy theories. For example, Leman and Cinnirella [57] conducted an experiment in which participants are asked to read stories about the president’s assassination and then rate the likelihood of different explanations to measure analytic or heuristic thinking. They report that the participants are likely to endorse a conspiracy theory to account for events more when the consequences are major (i.e., the president dies) than when they are comparatively minor. In addition, people who are less likely to engage in analytic thinking [37] or more likely to rely on heuristics [58] tend to rely on conspiracy theories. Beliefs in conspiracy theories are positively related to intuitive rather than analytic thinking [37].
Hypothesis 10 (H10).   Analytic thinking is negatively associated with beliefs in conspiracy theories.