This study investigates patterns of lay perception of economics, and in particular the place of conspiratorial thinking regarding the economic domain. We devised four types of accounts in the economic domain, over a range of questions regarding different aspects of the economy:

the classical neo-liberal economic view, and the Conspiracy view, to which we added the Government malfunction view, and the Bad Invisible Hand view. The last two views are the ones most strongly endorsed by our respondents, in the US, Israel and Switzerland.

The pattern of inter-correlations between the four accounts, and that between each and the psycho-social variables we examined, exhibits two clusters, Econ101 vs. the other three views of economy. This corresponds to a general opposition between people who trust the neoliberal economic system, and those opposed to it. What sets economic conspiratorial thinking apart are its links with other conspirational beliefs and with paranormal beliefs.

PLOS ONE