I need some answers, now!: Present time perspective is associated with holding conspiracy beliefs

Because conspiracy theories have many negative consequences, understanding the psychological factors underlying their endorsement is an important task for researchers. We examined whether people's time perspective (TP) – the tendency to focus on the certain aspects of the past, present, or future – is associated with conspiracy beliefs. In two studies we investigated general (Study 1; N = 263) and COVID-19 related (Study 2; N = 570) conspiracy theories. The most consistent finding was the positive correlation between two present TPs: hedonism and fatalism and the endorsement of conspiracy ideations. Moreover, we found that hostility and a tendency toward irrational thinking mediated these associations. Additionally, but only in Study 2, conspiracy beliefs were associated with higher levels of the Past Negative TP and less balanced TP. We conclude that conspiracy theories provide simple and immediate answers of important events and that is why they are attractive to present oriented people who look for immediate explanations of complex and difficult situations.