Unravelling the relationship between populism and belief in conspiracy theories: The role of cynicism, powerlessness and zero-sum thinking.

Tytuł:: Unravelling the relationship between populism and belief in conspiracy theories: The role of cynicism, powerlessness and zero-sum thinking.
Autorzy:: Papaioannou K; Department of Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.; National Centre for Social Research, London, UK.
Pantazi M; Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.; Center for Social and Cultural Psychology, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
van Prooijen JW; Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.; The Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.; Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Źródło:: British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) [Br J Psychol] 2023 Feb; Vol. 114 (1), pp. 159-175. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Oct 08.
Typ publikacji:: Journal Article
Język:: English
Imprint Name(s):: Publication: 2011- : West Sussex, England : Wiley-Blackwell
Original Publication: London ; New York : Cambridge University Press, [1953]-
MeSH Terms:: Attitude*
Emotions*
Humans ; United Kingdom
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Contributed Indexing:: Keywords: conspiracy beliefs; cynicism; populism; powerlessness; zero-sum thinking
Entry Date(s):: Date Created: 20221008 Date Completed: 20230110 Latest Revision: 20230111
Update Code:: 20240105
DOI:: 10.1111/bjop.12602
PMID:: 36208392
: Czasopismo naukowe

Pełny tekst

In recent years, it has been argued that conspiracy beliefs and populist attitudes go hand in hand. Despite their theoretical and empirical similarities, it remains unclear why these constructs are so closely associated. Across three studies, we examined the processes underlying the relationship between belief in conspiracy theories and populist attitudes. Study 1 (Greece, N = 275) and Study 2 (United Kingdom, N = 300) revealed that the relationship between populist attitudes and conspiracy beliefs is mediated by political cynicism and zero-sum thinking. In Study 3 (USA, N = 300, pre-registered), we use a vignette of a fictitious country to experimentally show that having a newly elected populist party in power (as compared to a well-established party) reduced participants' tendency to believe conspiracy theories. Moreover, this was due to increased empowerment, decreased political cynicism and decreased zero-sum thinking. These findings reveal various complementary mediators of the link between populist attitudes and conspiracy thinking and suggest that electing a populist party in power may reduce conspiracy beliefs among the public.
(© 2022 The British Psychological Society.)

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