Conspiracy Theories: Do Autism and ADHD Make You More Susceptible?

Falling for a conspiracy theory can happen to the best of us, and in these unstable times, conspiracy theories can seem more reasonable than ever. But research shows that certain people are more likely to shape their worldview around various conspiracies. If you have ADHD or autism, are you at higher risk? And more importantly, what can you do to protect yourself and your loved ones? Read on to find out!

Prefer to listen to this article instead? No problem! Click below to hear the recorded version.

Do YOU believe in conspiracy theories?

Several studies show that the majority of people in the world believe in at least one conspiracy theory. Not every conspiracy theory is outlandish, and some conspiracy theories are later proven to be true! The academic definition of a conspiracy theory is simply the idea that a nefarious (often powerful) group of people are secretly meeting and coordinating with each other in order to accomplish a shared malevolent goal. This definition doesn't make any judgement about the veracity of the claims.

With that in mind, you can take the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS) here, which is a standardized tests used in conspiracy theory studies to determine where you fall on the spectrum of overall belief. Don't worry, this test doesn't require your email to see your results.

Why is it harmful to believe in conspiracy theories?

Some conspiracy theories have more of a negative societal impact than others, but overall conspiracy belief undoubtedly harms the individual believers as well. Casually dabbling in the occasional conspiracy theory isn't a big deal, but at some point, increased exposure to conspiratorial ideas and allowing them to play a larger role in your daily thoughts creates a snowball effect that harms your psyche. The process often starts slow and then spirals out of control over time. At a personal level, belief in conspiracy theories can lead to these outcomes:

• Increased paranoia

  Paranoia happens not only from belief in conspiracy theories, but also simply from increased exposure to conspiracy theories over time, regardless of whether you believe them. Interestingly, paranoia is also a major risk factor for developing a conspiracy mentality, which can create a vicious feedback loop that destroys your mental health.

  
  

• Decreased normative action

  These are legal and socially acceptable actions to influence politics or social outcomes, like voting or peaceful protest to influence politics or decreasing your carbon footprint to impact climate change.

  
  

• Increased non-normative actions

  Contrasted with the above examples of normative actions, non-normative actions include things that aren't socially acceptable, like violence against a person in power.

  
  

• Increased sense of powerlessness and less initiative to help oneself

  The sense of powerlessness leads to a person taking fewer actions to actually address the root causes of core stressors, which again keeps them trapped in a loop with worsening conspiracy mentality.

  
  

• Isolation from your existing social groups

  Isolation occurs especially if those social group does not share the same conspiratorial beliefs. In response, some people seek out community from others who share their same conspiratorial beliefs. This creates an information bubble and decreases the chances of a person eventually abandoning their conspiracy theories, as this would cause them to become socially isolated once again.

  
  

• Increased anger, extremism, and support of violence

  Conspiracy theories are called a “radicalizing multiplier” in extremism research. A radicalizing multiplier has 3 components - it demonizes an "enemy group", undermines voices of dissent and moderation, and portrays violence as necessary and beneficial to "awaken" other people from their complacency. Certain traits, such as paranoia, exacerbate the likelihood of violent views.

Why are conspiracy theories appealing?

The very definition of conspiracy theories gives us a hint about why they are appealing - they involve a high degree of coordination. In an unstable world, many people find it more comforting to believe that someone is in control, even if they have evil intentions, rather than believing the world is random and chaotic.

Research on conspiracy motivation essentially proposes that when you are deprived of certain core needs, you are likely to latch onto a conspiracy theory. These needs are:

• Epistemic: The need to have a reliable, certain, and stable understanding of the world

  An epistemic threat might occur when a major world event has a mundane, unsatisfactory, or seemingly incomplete official explanation. People will turn to conspiracies to fill in the gaps and alleviate the discomfort of uncertainty and confusion.

  
  

• Existential: The need to feel safe and in control of your environment, particularly in the face of threat

  An existential threat might occur when a natural disaster, widespread illness, or terrorist attack occurs and threatens the safety of an individual. Believing that the event was coordinated and planned offers comfort over the idea that such an event was random or uncontrollable (and therefore could happen again with no way to protect yourself).

  
  

• Social: The need to reinforce a positive image of yourself and your social groups

  A social threat might occur when someone learns a member of their social group, such as their workplace or political party, is embroiled in a scandal. A conspiracy theory that suggests that person was set up or that the victims deserved it protects the ego from grappling with the idea that your social group might have certain inexcusable flaws.

  
  

Beyond these core needs, conspiracies also provide certain benefits to the believer. They can actually enhance your ego (e.g. "I'm part of a special, small elite group who really understands what's going on" or "I'm so important that people are spending time targeting me") and give you a sense of purpose and meaning as you try to fight back against the conspiracy. However, that doesn't mean that conspiracy holders have a healthy self esteem. In fact, low or unstable self esteem is a strong predictive factor for whether you will fall for conspiracy theories.

What personality traits make you more susceptible to conspiracy theories?

Epistemic, existential, or social threats can occur equally to anyone and cause them to turn to conspiracies. However, certain personality traits create a higher baseline risk for latching onto conspiracies. This baseline tendency towards believing conspiracies is called conspiracy mentality, and it seems to be a relatively stable personality trait (as opposed to being temporary or situational).

So let's start with conspiracy mentality traits that are NOT connected to Autism or ADHD:

• Individual narcissism:

  Narcissism tends to correlate with conspiracy mentality because it fosters the belief that people are intentionally thinking about you, targeting you and spending time trying to manipulate outcomes for you. Older studies will sometimes attempt to link ADHD or autism to narcissism, but the issue likely lies more with clinicians not understanding how to make a proper differential diagnosis between the conditions. Additionally, older autism research erroneously asserted a lack of empathy among autistic individuals. We now know that autistic people likely have an empathic disequilibrium, meaning they have proportionally more affective empathy (e.g. "I am involuntarily experiencing the same emotions that you are" like an emotional sponge) than cognitive empathy (e.g. "I can identify and name the emotion that you are feeling" but not experiencing that emotion in response to observing it). This tends to be reversed in neurotypicals, who exhibit more cognitive empathy than affective empathy.

  
  

• Collective narcissism

  This is the belief that a social group you belong to is superior to all others and deserving of special recognition. Examples of this would be high nationalism for one's own country, belief in racial supremacy, or even on a smaller scale, belief that your team at work is much better and smarter than all the other teams.

  
  

• Prior belief in conspiracies

  Perhaps the most intuitive risk factor of them all, prior belief in conspiracies makes you more susceptible to future belief in conspiracies.

Studies have shown that autism by itself does not create a higher risk factor for conspiracy mentality (I could not find a comparable study on ADHD). However, certain traits that frequently occur alongside ADHD and autism can elevate risk, while others might be protective. This mix of protective factors and risk factors might explain why the overall conspiracy mentality rate for autism was the same as neurotypicals at the population level. At the individual level, an autistic person who is highly anxious might have higher conspiratorial mentality risk than an autistic person who is exceptionally analytical. Both are notable autistic traits, but they lead to different risk factors and outcomes.

What autistic and ADHD traits make you more susceptible to conspiracy theories?

So now that we've seen the traits that have no association to ADHD and autism, let's look at the traits that we may have that overlap with heightened conspiracy mentality:

• Paranoia

  Paranoia is the belief that others are deliberately trying to harm you despite a lack of concrete evidence. Paranoia exists on a spectrum, so it could range from more mild beliefs, like the idea that all your friends are gossiping behind your back, to more extreme beliefs, like the idea that governments are withholding lifesaving medicines to keep the population sick. This is the paranoia hierarchy, which shows the levels of severity of paranoid ideation.

  
  

  

  Source: Freeman D, Garety P. Helping patients with paranoid and suspicious thoughts: a cognitive–behavioural approach. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment. 2006;12(6):404-415. doi:10.1192/apt.12.6.404

  Estimates show that up to 30% of the global population experiences some level of paranoid thinking without it necessarily meeting a clinical and pathological threshold, and some professionals even consider social anxiety to be a very mild form of paranoia.

  
  

  Heightened paranoia is perhaps the single biggest predictor of conspiracy mentality. Making matters worse, it has a feedback loop relationship with conspiracy exposure, meaning this trait will increase even more as a person is exposed to conspiracy theories. Experiencing discrimination and being mistreated by others has shown to be the most significant risk factor in developing paranoia.

  
  

  You can use this free online test to get an idea about how paranoid your thinking has been over the last month. I want to emphasize that thoughts are only paranoid if you hold these beliefs without concrete evidence. For example, the idea that someone is trying to cause you significant physical harm is NOT paranoia if you have an abusive partner who does actually hurt you.

  
  

  Studies link autism to paranoia and delusion at a fairly high rate, but they may have flawed methodologies and often rely on outdated ideas of autism, such as the largely debunked idea that autistic people lack theory of mind.

  
  

  Studies have shown a moderately strong correlation between ADHD traits and propensity for paranoia. The biggest predictive factors were higher scores on heightened attention to details (indicating AuDHD), social impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity. Around 3% of adults with ADHD meet criteria for paranoid personality disorder.

• High levels of anxiety

  Anxiety is the single most common comorbidity for both ADHD and autism, which makes it an extremely relevant risk factor for developing conspiracy mentality. Anxiety occurs in ADHD roughly 50% of the time, in autism roughly 50% of the time, and in AuDHD roughly 72% of the time.

  
  

• Paranormal or religious belief

  Paranormal belief broadly refers to phenomena which contradict current scientific understanding, such as psychokinesis, hauntings, and clairvoyance. Paranormal experiences may be elevated with autism due to sensory perception differences, although sample sizes are generally small on these types of studies.

  
  

• Low self esteem

  Another major predictive factor is having low self esteem. As mentioned earlier, conspiracies can give believers a boost in self esteem, which may explain the connection to this trait. We know self esteem is often significantly lower in ADHD and autism.

  
  

• Justice sensitivity

  Newer research shows that people who believe the world is unjust are more likely to fall into conspiracy mentality. We know there is a strong correlation with ADHD, autism, and justice sensitivity, although this trait is often misconstrued in social media. Neurodivergent justice sensitivity does not necessarily mean you are a saint who is exceptionally moral and ethical. It simply means you are more sensitive to perceived injustices based on your own moral code, so this can go a bit haywire when a conspiracy theorist has an ethical code that does not align with reality (e.g. "This scientist is creating a bioweapon that is going to kill everyone, so therefore it's justified if I doxx them on the internet").

  
  

• Low tolerance for ambiguity

  This trait is an intuitive risk factor, especially in the context of epistemic deprivation, where disruptive events have an unsatisfactory official explanation. Low ambiguity tolerance drives you to fill in the perceived gaps with conspiracy. We know autism and ADHD are both associated with a lower tolerance for ambiguity compared to neurotypicals, and this low tolerance leads to black and white thinking.

  
  

• Pattern matching

  Pattern matching is a well known, well researched, and highly beneficial strength of autism that improves society. In fact, one compelling paper even proposed that autism should be redefined through the lens of patterns as the single unifying autistic trait to address the wide heterogeneity of the current diagnostic criteria.

  
  

  

  Source: Crespi B. Pattern Unifies Autism. Front Psychiatry. 2021 Feb 12;12:621659. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.621659. PMID: 33643094; PMCID: PMC7907419.

However, even the best pattern matcher can be wrong from time to time. Humans also have a tendency for patternicity, which basically means that sometimes our brains create patterns in random data where none exist. This leads to phenomena where we see faces in trees or machines, or we believe unrelated events are connected. Naturally, a brain that is exceptionally driven to find patterns can also be prone to patternicity, which creates a susceptibility towards believing in conspiracy theories because conspiracies often attempt to create a pattern between unrelated phenomena.

Do you see a face in the tree? You have patternicity to thank!

What personality traits prevent conspiracy mentality?

The list of neurodivergent traits that can lead to conspiracy theory might feel long, but don't worry, autism also gives you a secret weapon! As mentioned earlier, we know autistic people are no more (or less) likely to believe conspiracy theories compared to the general population, and the reason seems to come down to our analytical thinking style. This thinking style appears to single handedly counteract all the other traits that raise your risk.

This thinking style is called the Dual Process Theory in Autism. Basically, some people tend to process information intuitively, which is fast and automatic. Others are reasoning based, which is more analytical. Studies show that autistic people tend to fall into the latter category. The highly analytical approach autistic people take during decision making reduces susceptibility to biases like the framing effect, sunk cost fallacy, and conjunction fallacy. Note that in popular culture, you will often hear the autistic thinking style referred to as being slower. This is not entirely accurate. Studies actually show that autistic people process information significantly faster than neurotypicals. It only appears slower because autistics are taking in a larger volume of information before making decisions. Part of this increased speed may be the result of autistic people having a clear sense of what metrics are important in their decision making, so they spend more time focused on the criteria that matters and filter out information they already predetermined to be irrelevant.

For example, one study evaluating the connection between paranoia and autism asked participants look at a set of items, such as beads in a jar or collections of words, and indicate when they had seen enough information to draw conclusions. The autistic group consistently requested more information and was less likely to jump to conclusions during analysis. The autistic group was also less likely to incorporate emotions into their decision making and was therefore more logically consistent across decisions.

Because that study was looking at both autism and paranoia, it had some interesting findings that are relevant to conspiracy mentality:

• Potential false positives for autistics on paranoia tests High scores on paranoia tests for autistic people might be inaccurate due to the fact that the tests often ask about whether people are targeting you, gossiping behind your back, staring at you, etc. Because we know autistic people are bullied at significantly higher rates, even in adulthood, this might not be paranoia but instead, accurate reporting of events. The authors of the study proposed that future efforts should be invested in developing a paranoia test specifically tailored for autistic individuals to reduce these potential false positives.

  
  

• High paranoia autistic people still maintain a bias for data

  In this study, they separated participants into four groups - neurotypicals with low and high paranoia, and autistics with low and high paranoia. High paranoia autistics still incorporated more data into their decision making process than either neurotypical group. On the "Words Task", which was designed to evoke more emotional decision making, both autistic groups relied more heavily on data than the less emotionally charged "Beads Task", whereas the neurotypical groups used less data on the emotional task, which introduced significant potential for bias. Basically, the "bias for data" autistic trait has a larger impact on your decision making processes than paranoia.

  
  

  I recreated the charts from the study because the originals were a bit blurry, but note that the source for this information comes from this link and does not belong to me.

Source (chart was recreated for readability): Bennert K, Brosnan M, Canning A, Roberts G, Russell A. Paranoia and Data-Gathering Biases in Autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 Apr;55(4):1402-1410. doi: 10.1007/s10803-024-06301-w. Epub 2024 Feb 29. PMID: 38421502; PMCID: PMC11933180.

Source (chart was recreated for readability): Bennert K, Brosnan M, Canning A, Roberts G, Russell A. Paranoia and Data-Gathering Biases in Autism. J Autism Dev Disord. 2025 Apr;55(4):1402-1410. doi: 10.1007/s10803-024-06301-w. Epub 2024 Feb 29. PMID: 38421502; PMCID: PMC11933180.

How can you protect yourself?

While it's important for everyone to stay vigilant against misinformation and conspiracy, it's extra important for people with ADHD and autism since we do have those additional risk factors. Here are a few steps you can take:

• Play the Bad Vaxx game

  Understanding manipulation techniques used by people who spread misinformation is a powerful way to avoid falling for it. A team of sociology researchers from the University of Cambridge, University of Bristol, Dartmouth College, Stanford University, and Duke University collaborated to develop a game called Bad Vaxx (which you can play for free on a web browser by clicking this link) to help teach the public about these common manipulation tactics. Not only is it fun, but a study conducted about the game also showed that it was effective, too! More broadly, this type of intervention is called informational inoculation. Basically, it's much easier to prevent yourself from falling into conspiracy mentality in the first place than it is to pull yourself out after it has already happened. This can include exposure to accurate information on specific topics before being exposed to the conspiracy as well as general practice at exercising critical thinking skills.

• Limit exposure to conspiracy theories

  As mentioned earlier in this article, simply being exposed to numerous conspiracy theories can increase paranoia, which in turn increases your risk for conspiratorial mentality. If you have a social media feed or a friend in your life who is frequently sharing conspiracies with you, it might be time to set up some firm boundaries to protect yourself.

  
  

• Treat underlying anxiety

  Because anxiety is the most common comorbidity for ADHD and autistic individuals, it stands to reason that this is a significant risk factor for many of us when it comes to conspiracy mentality. Meta analyses have conclusively proven that stimulant medication is a safe and highly effective way to decrease anxiety for most of the ADHD population, despite the common myth that stimulants increase anxiety. Meta analyses have also shown Dialectic Behavioral Therapy, or DBT, is effective at teaching emotional regulation skills and reducing anxiety in ADHD and autism. Many sources online will recommend Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for anxiety, but CBT is often contraindicated for people with autism or ADHD due to its structural rigidity that can sometimes pathologize normal thinking patterns in neurodivergence.

• Examine if your ideas are unfalsifiable

  Unsure if something you believe might be a conspiracy? A hallmark characteristic of conspiracy theories is that they can't be proven false, even in the face of evidence that contradicts your claim. For example, if there is a conspiracy theory that the Pope shot Queen Elizabeth, but then seven eyewitnesses come forward and say they personally saw the Pope asleep in bed when the crime took place, a conspiracy theorist might retort "Well, those seven eyewitnesses were insiders on the plot" or "The witnesses were tricked because it was a body double in bed posing as the Pope". No matter the evidence presented, there will always be an endless chain of "alternative" explanations. It's a good idea to get in the practice of examining your beliefs to see if they feel unfalsifiable. You can even take this a step further and consider what type of evidence would be sufficient to make you change your view on that topic.

  
  

• Ask critical questions when you have paranoid thoughts

  The following questions first published by Reachlink are an excellent place to start:

  
  

  • Am I jumping to conclusions? Are your fears based on concrete evidence, or are you speculating based on tone of voice or facial expressions?

    
    

  • Do my worries match my experience? Are you afraid someone you’ve always trusted is secretly undermining you? Does this fit with your observations of their past behavior?

    
    

  • Are my theories elaborate and unlikely? Complex plots involving many people and substantial resources are typically uncommon in reality.

    
    

  • Do trusted people in my life agree with me? Consider discussing your fears with people you’re certain wouldn’t mislead you.

    
    

  • Am I emotionally volatile? Paranoia may cause heightened, explosive emotional reactions.

    
    

  • Have I been under significant stress recently? If your suspicions emerged during a period of severe mental or emotional fatigue, it could indicate stress-induced paranoia.

    
    

  If you're feeling paranoid, it might be time to grab an appointment with a therapist, preferably one who specializes in interpersonal therapy and is either neurodivergent themselves or has extensive postgraduate training on neurodivergence. Again, much research points to the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for addressing paranoia, but as stated earlier, CBT can be harmful when you are neurodivergent because it may patholigize normal neurodivergent thinking patterns. If you still want to go down the CBT route, find a provider who has ADHD or autism themselves and specializes in modified forms of CBT that have specifically been adapted to ADHD and autism. The following is an excellent video explaining the issues with CBT for autism:

  
  

  https://youtu.be/YtalhGeKVNM

Conclusion

To sum everything up, belief in conspiracy theories comes from a combination of innate risk factors from your personality as well as situational catalysts that make you feel unsafe. Certain traits that are more common with ADHD and autism, such as heightened paranoia, high levels of anxiety, paranormal beliefs, low self esteem, justice sensitivity, low tolerance for ambiguity, and pattern matching are associated with a higher likelihood of believing in conspiracy theories. However, one single autistic trait, our data driven, analytical thinking style, appears to cancel out all these other risk factors, because studies show autistic people are no more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than neurotypicals.

** As always, this article is provided for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute providing medical advice or professional services. The information provided should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, and those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician.

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