In a recent study, researchers found that individuals with a strong inclination towards believing in conspiracy theories about COVID-19 were less likely to fall for misinformation if they were in a fulfilling romantic relationship. The study suggests that having a positive romantic connection provides a sense of safety and security, reducing the need to seek safety through embracing false information. The study was published in Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology. ...
    • Salamander@mander.xyzM
      13·
      1 year ago

      Not really, all of the participants were in long-term heterosexual relationships.

      Relationships averaged 13.3 (SD=10.2) years in length (130 dating, 36 engaged, 389 married).

      They did not investigate how often these couples slept together. However, they do state the following:

      Participants in the experimental condition did not report significantly greater trust in their romantic partner, as compared to control participants, likely because participants were already, unsurprisingly, highly trusting of their romantic partners.

      So I don’t think it is fair to assume that these people were not getting laid.

      As for ‘crazy people’, the paper does not call anyone crazy. They also do not apply an absolute negative connotation to the word, they state:

      Like moths to flames, conspiracy theorists gravitate to any whisper of information that fuels their suspicions and distrust. While such inclinations might be advantageous when the government is actually behaving duplicitously, they are less advantageous in the context of a global health pandemic where resistance to public health advice directly compounds death rates (Robertson, 2021; VoPham et al., 2020).