Beneath the Surface of Unfounded Belief Systems: An Extended Test of the Dimensionality Hypothesis
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology March 30, 2026 Albina Gallyamova, Elizaveta Komyaginskaya, Dmitry Grigoryev
A general cognitive-motivational liability underlies diverse epistemically unfounded beliefs—conspiracy, paranormal, pseudoscientific, religious, and pseudo-profound (“bullshit”) beliefs—alongside domain-specific components. In a nationally representative Russian sample (N = 1268), a bifactor model best captured the covariance structure, with a general factor explaining about half of the common variance. Domain scores alone confound this general liability with specific variance, distorting cross-domain comparisons. Cognitive and motivational antecedents correlated more strongly with the general factor, while each belief domain showed distinct additional profiles. The findings support a dimensional view rooted in a common cognitive-motivational architecture, potentially reflecting an evolved predisposition favoring Type I errors and archaic magical thinking.