Poor sleep may fuel conspiracy beliefs, according to new research
2025-03-12
(Press-News.org)
A new study from the University of Nottingham has revealed that poor sleep quality may increase susceptibility to conspiracy beliefs, with depression likely playing a key role in this relationship.
Experts from the University’s School of Psychology examined the link between sleep quality and conspiracy beliefs in two studies involving over 1,000 participants. Their findings, published in the Journal of Health Psychology, indicate that individuals with poorer sleep quality over the past month were more likely to endorse conspiracy theories, particularly after exposure to conspiratorial content.
Conspiracy theories claim that powerful, secretive groups act in their own self-interest, to the detriment of society. These beliefs can have serious consequences, such as increasing vaccine hesitancy, climate change scepticism, and political distrust.
In their first study, 540 participants completed a standardised sleep quality assessment before reading an article about the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris. Some were exposed to a conspiracy narrative suggesting a deliberate cover-up, while others read a factual account attributing the fire to an accident. The researchers found that those with poorer sleep quality were more likely to believe the conspiratorial version of events.
A second study with 575 participants expanded on these findings by investigating the underlying psychological mechanisms that explain the link between poor sleep quality and conspiracy beliefs. The results showed that both poor sleep quality and insomnia were positively linked to the endorsement of conspiracy theories, with depression emerging as a mechanism. Anger and paranoia also played a role, but their effects were less consistent.
Dr Daniel Jolley, Assistant Professor in Social Psychology led the research team that included, Research Fellow Dr Iwan Dinnick and recent graduates Lauren Burgin, Sophie Ryan, Olivia Morgan-Finn and Samuel Muncer.
Dr Jolley explained: “Sleep is crucial for mental health and cognitive functioning. Poor sleep has been shown to increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and paranoia - factors that also contribute to conspiracy beliefs. Our research suggests that improving sleep quality could serve as a protective factor against the spread of conspiratorial thinking”
These findings highlight the potential for sleep-focused interventions to mitigate susceptibility to conspiracy theories. By addressing sleep quality, individuals may be better equipped to critically evaluate information and resist misleading narratives.
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2025-03-12
Adolescent boys who experience violence have up to 8 times the odds of perpetrating physical and sexual intimate partner violence that same day, per South African study collecting real-time data over mobile phones
Article URL: https://plos.io/4brsDzz
Article title: Measuring real-time violence exposure and its impact on intimate partner violence perpetration among adolescents
Author countries: US, South Africa
Funding: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health under Award R01MH119878. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors ...
2025-03-12
Critically endangered hawksbill turtles migrate up to 1,000km from nesting to foraging grounds in the Western Caribbean, riding with and against ocean currents to congregate in popular feeding hotspots
Article URL: https://plos.io/41LfJZK
Article title: Inter-nesting area use, migratory routes, and foraging grounds for hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Western Caribbean
Author countries: US, Honduras, Costa Rica
Funding: Funding for this project was provided by the Boyd Lyon Sea Turtle Fund to QDB, ...
2025-03-12
ALBANY, N.Y. (March 12, 2025) — University at Albany researchers at the RNA Institute are pioneering new methods for designing and assembling DNA nanostructures, enhancing their potential for real-world applications in medicine, materials science and data storage.
Their latest findings demonstrate a novel ability to assemble these structures without the need for extreme heat and controlled cooling. They also demonstrate successful assembly in unconventional “buffer” substances including nickel. These developments, published today in the journal Science Advances, unlock new possibilities in DNA nanotechnology.
DNA ...
2025-03-12
PM2.5 exposure may be associated with increased skin redness in Taiwanese adults, suggesting that air pollution may contribute to skin health issues.
####
Article URL: https://plos.io/4iDTuuo
Article Title: Association between PM2.5 and skin redness features in Taiwan
Author Countries: Taiwan, United States
Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. END ...
2025-03-12
Today, Breakthrough Discoveries for thriving with Bipolar Disorder (BD²) announced four new national institutions to receive $2.3 million each to join the BD² Integrated Network, a collaborative research and clinical care model that will improve care, interventions, and outcomes for people living with bipolar disorder.
University of Cincinnati/Lindner Center of HOPE, University of California San Diego, The University of Texas at Austin, and The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research join the six inaugural institutions in the network. Working in partnership with clinicians, researchers, and people living ...
2025-03-12
Older adults who lack internet access are at a significantly higher risk of developing depressive symptoms, especially those with limited familial support or lower income levels, according to a new study published in Health Data Science. Conducted by an international team of researchers, this study analyzed data from five major aging cohort studies covering 24 countries, revealing a strong link between digital exclusion and mental health.
The researchers, led by Dr. Yinzi Jin from Peking University, investigated how digital exclusion—defined as the lack of internet access—affects the mental health of older adults. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), ...
2025-03-12
Quantum annealing processors outperform classical supercomputers in solving real-world scientific simulations of quantum spin dynamics, researchers report in a new study, achieving results far beyond the capacity of conventional computational methods, which may require impossible time and energy to match. The results provide a challenge to classical computing, where method improvement has in the past tempered claims of quantum advantage. Only in recent years have quantum computers begun to live up to their lofty promises, with quantum processing units (QPUs) with diverse architectures – such as photonic, neutral-atom, and ...
2025-03-12
How UV Radiation Triggers a Cellular Rescue Mission
Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun is a well-known cause of DNA damage, which can lead to diseases like skin cancer. But how do our cells repair this damage to protect us? Researchers from Sabanci University, Veysel Oğulcan Kaya and Ogün Adebali, have uncovered a fascinating answer: when DNA is damaged by UV light, our cells reorganize their genetic material in 3D space to prioritize repair, in what might be called a “cellular rescue mission.”
A New Look at DNA Repair
DNA, the blueprint of ...
2025-03-12
Until now, doctors knew hepatic stellate cells mainly as drivers of liver fibrosis. The actual functions of this cell type have hardly been studied to date. Researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the Mannheim Medical Faculty and Columbia University in New York have now published in the journal Nature that hepatic stellate cells control liver metabolism as well as liver regeneration and size. The results of the study could contribute to new therapeutic approaches for liver diseases.
The liver is a central organ for carbohydrate and protein metabolism as well as for the detoxification ...
2025-03-12
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers worldwide, with a five-year survival rate of 13%. This poor prognosis stems from both late detection and the cancer’s notorious capacity to adapt and resist therapy. Now, a study led by researchers at the University of Verona, University of Glasgow, and the Botton-Champalimaud Pancreatic Cancer Centre uncovers a hidden driver of this adaptability: extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA).
A New Player in Pancreatic Cancer
The team found that some pancreatic cancer cells gain a major survival edge by carrying copies of critical cancer genes—such as ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Poor sleep may fuel conspiracy beliefs, according to new research
