Too special to be duped: Need for uniqueness motivates conspiracy beliefs.

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A Bioweapon or a Hoax? The Link Between Distinct Conspiracy Beliefs About the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak and Pandemic Behavior (2020, background): “This is relevant, as endorsement of conspiracy beliefs has been associated with an increased need for uniqueness in both correlational and experimental studies (Imhoff & Lamberty, 2017; Lantian et al., 2017).”
Resolving the Puzzle of Conspiracy Worldview and Political Activism: Belief in Secret Plots Decreases Normative but Increases Nonnormative Political Engagement (2021, background): “Two preregistered studies in two different national contexts (Germany, United States) converge in showing a curvilinear relation between experimentally assigned (hypothetical) conspiracy worldview and the general tendency to become politically active (independent of the means).”
Why conspiracy theories matter: A social psychological analysis (2018, unknown): “These findings were corroborated by Imhoff and Lamberty (2017), whose findings also linked conspiracy beliefs with need for uniqueness.”
Mistrust and misinformation: A two-component, socio-epistemic model of belief in conspiracy theories (2020, unknown): “…2018, Wagner-Egger et al., 2018); conjunction fallacies (Brotherton & French, 2014); need for control, certainty, cognitive closure, and uniqueness (Imhoff & Lamberty, 2017; Lantian et al., 2017; Marchlewska, Cichocka, & Kossowska, 2018; Newheiser, Farias, & Tausch, 2011; van Prooijen & Acker,…”