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Description: Conspiracy theories wield significant influence across diverse domains encompassing health, politics, and the workplace (Douglas et al., 2015). For example, believing in COVID-19-related conspiracy theories is associated with diminished apprehension of the pandemic's severity, reduced adoption of preventive measures like mask-wearing, and decreased intent to undergo vaccination within the United States (Romer & Jamieson, 2020). In their analysis across 17 European countries, Syropoulos and Gkinopoulos (2023) found that institutional trust and conspiracy theory beliefs predict vaccine hesitancy even after accounting for demographic variables. Further, allegations of election rigging conspiracy theories served as a catalyst for the tumultuous storming of the United States Capitol in 2021. During periods of heightened stress, individuals may exhibit a proclivity for embracing conspiracy theories (Douglas et al., 2019; Lantian et al., 2017; J. W. Van Prooijen, 2019). Numerous conspiracy theories emerge during times of crisis (Nefes, 2014). In parallel, encountering significant life stressors and experiencing elevated perceived stress levels correlates with the belief in conspiracy theories among adults in the United States (Swami et al., 2016). An investigation involving Italian adults established a linkage between perceived stress, COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and mistrust to medical authorities (Simione et al., 2021). The belief in conspiracy theories may be influenced by stress, and this effect could arise from the impact of biological stress on the brain. For instance, the influence of cortisol on hippocampal activity may affect memory processes related to conspiracy explanations (Duch, 2021; Hermans et al., 2014) or the propensity to less complex learning and reasoning mechanisms under stress may be involved (Moravec et al., 2019; Schwabe, 2017). Nevertheless, the academic literature on conspiracy theories did not examine the relationship between acute stress and inclinations to believe in conspiracy theories. Indeed, perceived psychological stress exhibits only a modest association with biological stress and cortisol levels (Halford et al., 2012), and the heightened inclination toward conspiracy theories may augment perceived stress levels, rather than the reverse (Liekefett et al., 2023). Also, the correlation between perceived stress and conspiracy beliefs may be spurious, caused by the same situational factors affecting survey measures of both variables (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Accordingly, the scholarship could benefit from empirical studies that examine the relationship between stress and conspiracy theory beliefs. Our research addresses this gap in the scholarship by exploring how acute physiological stress influences conspiracy beliefs. In our experimental study, we will utilize the Maastricht Acute Stress Procedure (MAST) to induce biological stress, characterized by elevated cortisol levels. Aligned with prior academic literature on conspiracy theories (Duch, 2021; Swami et al., 2016; J.-W. van Prooijen et al., 2018), we expect that inducing stress will heighten reported agreement with conspiracy theory statements. Additionally, we aim to differentiate whether physiological stress levels impact the expression of agreement with conspiracy theories or the adoption of new conspiracy theories. This distinction mirrors Swami et al.’s (2011) categorization of real-world and fictitious conspiracy theories, where the former pertains to circulated conspiracy accounts and the latter involves fictional theories created by researchers. For assessing agreement with conspiracy theories, we will present items addressing agreement with straightforward statements summarizing conspiracy theories, such as those related to the Russia-Ukraine War. To examine the adoption of novel conspiracy theories, we will introduce brief fictional narratives describing an event with two alternative explanations, one of which is conspiratorial. By gauging agreement with these explanations, we aim to investigate acute stress as a factor that increases the likelihood of adopting a novel conspiracy theory when encountering a new situation (Duch, 2021).