Denialism is a psychological predisposition to distrust or reject authoritative information, expert accounts, and institutional narratives. Rather than evidence-based skepticism—which appropriately questions claims backed by weak evidence—denialism involves blanket distrust in institutions and experts regardless of evidence quality. Denialists systematically discount information from scientists, government officials, health authorities, and mainstream media, treating these sources as inherently suspect or conspiratorial.
Psychological foundations
Institutional distrust: A core component of denialism is fundamental distrust in institutions (government, public health, science, media). This distrust may be rooted in past institutional failures, lived experience of discrimination, or identity-based antipathy toward perceived out-group institutions.
Authority rejection: Denialists view expert credentials and institutional position as reasons to distrust rather than trust information. Authority is seen as a marker of participation in a corrupt system rather than a signal of epistemic competence.
Motivated skepticism: Denialism involves asymmetric scrutiny—applying extreme skepticism to information from distrusted institutions while uncritically accepting claims from alternative sources aligned with the denialist worldview.
Monological belief system: Denialism often co-occurs with conspiracy thinking, creating a self-reinforcing worldview in which institutional rejection and conspiracy belief mutually validate each other.
Relationship to misinformation
Denialism is a psychological vulnerability to misinformation. People high in denialism:
- Are less likely to accept corrections from official sources
- Are more susceptible to alternative health claims (anti-vaccination, unproven treatments)
- Show stronger belief in conspiracy narratives, particularly those attributing major events to hidden institutional malfeasance
- Resist public health interventions during crises because they distrust the institutions recommending them
Key papers in this wiki
- 2020-uscinski-covid-conspiracy-theories — Identifies denialism (measured as distrust in expert and authoritative information) as one of the two strongest psychological predictors of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs (alongside conspiracy thinking); shows that individuals with high denialism are significantly more likely to believe the threat has been exaggerated and that the virus was created on purpose, independent of partisan identity or education level.
Related topics
- conspiracy-theories — denialism and conspiracy thinking often co-occur
- covid-19-misinformation — denialism of public health recommendations contributed to pandemic misinformation
- vaccine-hesitancy — denialism of health authorities predicts vaccine skepticism
- institutional-trust — loss of trust in institutions enables denialism
- psychology-of-belief — underlying psychological drivers of denialist worldviews