I found this recent review interesting both as an overview of the study of “extraordinary beliefs” (which the authors define and describe) and as an exploration of a new added facet (experience) to the effort to understand and explain such things. The paper is currently open access but might not stay that way; I can’t really tell. (So I’ve attached the PDF below.)
Abstract and highlights:
The ubiquity of extraordinary beliefs across human societies, such as conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and supernatural beliefs, is a long-standing puzzle in cognitive science. Prevailing accounts emphasize cognitive biases and social dynamics but often neglect a key factor: experience. We synthesize recent evidence and identify three pathways by which experience can shape these convictions: by filtering which beliefs feel perceptually plausible, by sparking new beliefs through anomalous and emotionally charged events, and by being engineered through immersive cultural technologies that simulate sensory evidence. These pathways function alongside cognitive biases and social processes, helping explain why certain extraordinary beliefs recur, why they often accompany vivid rituals, and why they can feel convincing despite evidence that challenges their veracity.
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Across human societies, people develop extraordinary beliefs that seem to ignore or contradict available evidence, including conspiracy theories and beliefs in supernatural forces.
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Recent evidence suggests that experience biases us toward accepting some extraordinary beliefs over others, sparks the formation of new extraordinary beliefs, and is leveraged by cultural technologies to generate sensory evidence for extraordinary beliefs that would otherwise lack it.
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The key role of experience, in tandem with prior approaches, supports multidimensional models of belief change. It reinforces the importance of studying experience as a factor in the cognitive and evolutionary foundations of religion and opens new directions for pragmatic interventions against pseudoscience and conspiracy theories.