Conspiracy theories and work performance

The paper coauthored by Dr. Martin Šikýř analyzes the association between beliefs in popular conspiracy theories spread through social media and work performance using the results of an authors’ test of conspiracy theories applied to a sample of 178 students of the Faculty of Military Leadership, University of Defence in Brno, Czech Republic. The assumption was that the students would be generally immune to the impact of conspiracy theories. The analysis did not confirm a hypothesis that individuals with top work performance are less prone to beliefs in conspiracy theories than individuals with solid/poor work performance. The findings confirm the necessity to systematically train people working in high-profile professions to work with available information and deal with potential disinformation and conspiracy theories. The findings are useful in the HR management practice of organizations that care about the professional qualities of their people and encourage further research on the origin, spread, and impact of conspiracy theories in the workplace.

https://www.magnanimitas.cz/ADALTA/1401/PDF/1401.pdf