2.4.3. Education
Many studies examine the relationship between education and conspiracy theories. Generally, lower education levels increase beliefs in conspiracy theories [7,61,64]. Van Prooijen [62] suggests that education may give people a set of cognitive and affective attributes that enable them to resist conspiracy theories. She describes the causal chain from education to beliefs in conspiracy theories as follows: less education → less analytic thinking → strong beliefs in simple solutions → greater beliefs in conspiracy theories. Also, Georgiou et al. [30] show that beliefs in conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 are greater among people with lower levels of education.
Hypothesis 14 (H14).   Education is negatively associated with beliefs in conspiracy theories.