Dolores Albarracín (PSC Research Associate) was featured in Penn Today for her new book, Creating Conspiracy Beliefs: How Our Thoughts Are Shaped. Analyzing empirical research conducted on real-world examples of false plots, the authors pinpoint two factors that have driven recent widespread conspiracy theories: the conservative media and societal fear and anxiety. Albarracín has researched what happens when fringe ideas become consequential for society. “That’s what we’re seeing with conspiracy theories today. Nobody can deny now that these are wildly impactful and really problematic,” Albarracín says.