Supplementary file 1_How does belief in conspiracy theories affect loneliness and connectedness? A longitudinal investigation.docx

We did find evidence of a negative effect of belief in specific conspiracy theories on connectedness in our preregistered analyses, but this finding was not robust to alternative specifications. We found no evidence of converse effects (i.e., of connectedness and loneliness on belief in conspiracy theories or conspiracy mentality).</p>Discussion<p>Our findings suggest that average within-person effects on loneliness and connectedness (over a 1-month lag period) were small and not robust across plausible model specifications.

Nevertheless, our study was subject to several limitations, including modest power, vulnerability to time-varying confounds, and a sample with low mean levels of belief in conspiracy theories. Effects that are smaller than we had adequate power to detect, unfold over different time lags, or that are concentrated within subgroups (such as highly committed “believers”) remain possible, but would require further research to establish.</p>