Understanding the individual-level characteristics associated with conspiracy theory beliefs is vital to addressing and combatting those beliefs. While researchers have identified numerous psychological and political characteristics associated with conspiracy theory beliefs, the generalizability of those findings is uncertain because they are typically drawn from studies of only a few conspiracy theories. Here, we employ a national survey of 2021 U.S. adults that asks about 15 psychological and political characteristics as well as beliefs in 39 different conspiracy theories. Across 585 relationships examined within both bivariate (correlations) and multivariate (regression) frameworks, we find that psychological traits (e.g., dark triad) and non-partisan/ideological political worldviews (e.g., populism, support for violence) are most strongly related to individual conspiracy theory beliefs, regardless of the belief under consideration, while other previously identified correlates (e.g., partisanship, ideological extremity) are inconsistently related. We also find that the correlates of specific conspiracy theory beliefs mirror those of conspiracy thinking (the predisposition), indicating that this predisposition operates like an ‘average’ of individual conspiracy theory beliefs. Overall, our findings detail the psychological and political traits of the individuals most drawn to conspiracy theories and have important implications for scholars and practitioners seeking to prevent or reduce the impact of conspiracy theories.

了解与阴谋论信仰相关的个人层面的特征对于解决和打击这些信仰至关重要。尽管研究人员已经确定了与阴谋论信仰相关的许多心理和政治特征，但这些发现的普遍性尚不确定，因为它们通常仅来自对少数阴谋论的研究。在这里，我们对 2021 年美国成年人进行了一项全国调查，询问了 15 种心理和政治特征以及对 39 种不同阴谋论的信仰。在双变量（相关性）和多变量（回归）框架内检查的 585 种关系中，我们发现心理特征（例如，黑暗三人格）和无党派/意识形态的政治世界观（例如，民粹主义、对暴力的支持）与个人阴谋论信念，无论所考虑的信念如何，而先前确定的其他相关因素（例如党派之争、意识形态极端）之间的相关性不一致。我们还发现，特定阴谋论信仰的相关性反映了阴谋思维（倾向）的相关性，表明这种倾向就像个人阴谋论信仰的“平均值”一样运作。总体而言，我们的研究结果详细介绍了最受阴谋论影响的个人的心理和政治特征，对于寻求防止或减少阴谋论影响的学者和从业者具有重要意义。