Postdoctoral Fellowship: SPRF: Emotional Distress as a Mediator of the Threat Sensitivity and Conspiratorial Ideation Relation

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在范德比尔特大学Lisa Fazio博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖项奖学金支持一位早期职业科学家研究阴谋论思维、威胁敏感度和情绪痛苦之间的关系。阴谋论思维在美国是一个普遍存在的问题，它与威胁敏感性密切相关，包括存在主义、认知性和外部性威胁敏感性，以及情绪困扰，包括焦虑、愤怒和抑郁。了解在整个生命周期和先前对阴谋论的承诺程度上，威胁敏感性是否以及在多大程度上先于阴谋论，将有助于揭示阴谋论何时开始以及如何表现出来。青春期可能代表着阴谋论的“脆弱之窗”，对阴谋论有强烈承诺的个人最有可能以对社会有害的方式采取行动。因此，了解这些人群中的阴谋论思维至关重要。也许更重要的是，研究情绪痛苦是否在威胁敏感性和阴谋性思维之间的关系中起中介作用，并确定阴谋性思维是否与威胁敏感性的神经实例化有关，这将有助于未来旨在开发有效和持久的阴谋性思维干预措施的研究。社会科学、发展科学和行为神经科学的结合将对阴谋论思维以及如何改变它提供重要的见解。初步研究表明，威胁敏感度纵向预测阴谋论思维，提出威胁敏感度可能有助于解释阴谋论思维的出现的重要可能性。然而，这些关系背后的情感机制仍然不透明，阻碍了对阴谋论思维的充分理解。因此，这项研究将揭示情绪痛苦是否在威胁敏感性和阴谋性思维之间的纵向关系中起中介作用。研究一以非阴谋型成人、青少年(11-17岁)和阴谋型成人为样本，考察了威胁敏感性的多种形式(存在型、认知型和外向型)与阴谋性思维的纵向关系。此外，不同形式的情绪困扰(抑郁、焦虑和愤怒)将作为这些关系的中介进行考察。将有3个时间点，每个时间点相隔6周。这项研究还旨在调查阴谋论思维是否与威胁敏感性的神经指标有关，这最终将有助于未来旨在开发有效和持久的阴谋论思维干预措施的研究。在研究2中，将在3个样本中检验威胁敏感性的神经实例化与阴谋性思维的关系：非阴谋型成人、青少年(11-17岁)和阴谋型成人。具体地说，将检查晚期正电位(LPP)的反应性，这是一种事件相关电位(ERP)成分，在具有威胁性但不是中性的图像中会增强。参与者将完成阴谋论思维、威胁敏感度和情绪困扰的自我报告测量，然后他们将完成ERP任务。ERP任务将是一种新的情绪中断任务。这项拟议的研究将增加我们对阴谋论思维发展和维持的理解，并广泛推进社会和行为科学方面的知识。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF’s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Lisa Fazio at Vanderbilt University, this postdoctoral award fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the relationships among conspiratorial ideation, threat sensitivity, and emotional distress. Conspiratorial ideation is a pervasive problem in America that is strongly associated with threat sensitivity, spanning existential, epistemic, and outgroup threat sensitivity, and emotional distress, spanning anxiety, anger, and depression. Understanding whether and to what extent threat sensitivity precedes conspiratorial ideation across the lifespan and levels of prior commitment to conspiracy theories will shed light on when conspiratorial ideation starts and how it manifests. Adolescence may represent a “window of vulnerability” for conspiratorial ideation, and individuals with a strong commitment to conspiracy theories are most likely to act on their beliefs in ways that are detrimental to society. Thus, it is crucial to understand conspiratorial ideation in these populations. Perhaps even more importantly, examining whether emotional distress mediates the relations between threat sensitivity and conspiratorial ideation and identifying whether conspiratorial ideation is related to neural instantiations of threat sensitivity will assist future research aiming to develop effective and long-lasting interventions for conspiratorial ideation. The integration of social science, developmental science, and behavioral neuroscience will provide essential insights into conspiratorial ideation and how to change it.Preliminary research suggests that threat sensitivity longitudinally predicts conspiratorial ideation, raising the important possibility that threat sensitivity may help explain the emergence of conspiratorial ideation. Yet, the emotional mechanisms underlying these relations remain opaque, preventing a full understanding of conspiratorial ideation. As such, this study will uncover whether emotional distress mediates the longitudinal relations between threat sensitivity and conspiratorial ideation. In Study 1, the longitudinal relations between multiple forms of threat sensitivity (existential, epistemic, and outgroup) and conspiratorial ideation will be examined in 3 samples: non-conspiratorial adults, adolescents (11 – 17 yr), and conspiratorial adults. Moreover, different forms of emotional distress (depression, anxiety, and anger) will be examined as mediators in these relations. There will be 3 timepoints, with each timepoint being separated by a period of 6 weeks. This study also aims to investigate whether conspiratorial ideation is related to neural indicators of threat sensitivity, which will ultimately assist future research aiming to develop effective and long-lasting interventions for conspiratorial ideation. In Study 2, a neural instantiation of threat sensitivity will be examined in relation to conspiratorial ideation in 3 samples: non-conspiratorial adults, adolescents (11 – 17 yr), and conspiratorial adults. Specifically, late positive potential (LPP) reactivity will be examined, which is an event-related potential (ERP) component that is heightened for threatening, but not neutral, images. Participants will complete self-report measures of conspiratorial ideation, threat sensitivity, and emotional distress, and they will then complete the ERP task. The ERP task will be a novel emotional interrupt task. The proposed research will increase our understanding of the development and maintenance of conspiratorial ideation and broadly advance knowledge in the social and behavioral sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.