Camille Saucier
Dr. Saucier’s research broadly focuses on media psychology, message processing, and media effects. Her work emphasizes developing person-centered communications that promote openness to accurate information and build resilience against harmful online content and social engineering. To achieve these goals, she applies concepts involving self-affirmation, motivated reasoning, and parasocial relationships to enhance message receptivity.
Publications
Journal Articles
Leveraging motivations to curb misinformation: Self-affirmation reduces the appeal of political conspiracy theories
Published in Journal of Media Psychology, 2025
In an era where digital misinformation poses significant challenges to societal well-being, this study explores a novel approach to preserving information integrity by addressing the motivational underpinnings of conspiracy theory engagement. As conspiracy theories proliferate online, traditional fact-checking and debunking strategies often prove ineffective due to the self-reinforcing nature of conspiracy theories. This research investigates whether a priori self-affirmation interventions can reduce individuals’ propensity to engage with conspiracy theories by preemptively fulfilling the ego-protective function these theories often serve. Using a randomized experiment (N = 451), this study finds that participants who completed a self-affirmation task were less likely to read politicized conspiracy theories, and those who chose to read a conspiracy theory reported greater feelings of affirmation than those who did not. Thus, bolstering individuals’ self-integrity may offer an opportunity to mitigate the appeal of politicized conspiracy theories.
Recommended citation: Saucier, C. J., Calabrese, C., & Walter, N. (2025). Leveraging motivations to curb misinformation: Self-affirmation reduces the appeal of political conspiracy theories. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 37(5), 316–322. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000481