Conspiracy Thinking in Europe and America: A Comparative Study

Abstract

What explains conspiracy thinking in Europe and America? This is the first and largest comparative study of conspiracy thinking to date, presenting findings using a representative sample of 11,523 respondents in nine countries. First, it shows that the overall level of conspiracy thinking in Europe is equal to or slightly lower than the United States, contradicting the notion that conspiracy theories is an especially American phenomenon. Second, people more inclined to conspiracy thinking position themselves towards the right of the political spectrum, engage in magical thinking, feel distrust towards public officials and reject the political system. Finally, we find that – surprisingly – the country context in which respondents reside has hardly any effect as predictor of levels of conspiracy thinking or as a moderator of individual-level determinants. Heterogeneity in conspiratorial thinking seems to be largely a function of individual traits.

Does the platform matter? Social media and COVID-19 conspiracy theory beliefs in 17 countries

“…While comparative studies on conspiracy beliefs are scarce due to the fact that popular conspiracy theories differ across countries, our findings corroborate previous comparative work on conspiracy beliefs. More specifically, our findings are in line with Walter and Drochon's (2020) study of nine European countries which reports a tendency similar to that seen in our data, namely, East European countries having the highest level of conspiracy beliefs, Nordic countries the lowest, and Mediterranean countries being somewhere in the middle. While it is plausible that cultural differences and historical experience might have affected our participants' responses (e.g.…”

Conspiracy endorsement and its associations with personality functioning, anxiety, loneliness, and sociodemographic characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic in a representative sample of the German population

“…The prevalence of conspiracy thinking appears to be lower in the general population than in convenience samples, which are likely to be younger and have a higher affinity for the Internet. Comparable studies with representative samples are rare and do not report prevalence rates, such as one study with a representative sample of 11,523 people in nine countries [55]. The findings of Freeman and colleagues [4] had been questioned because of the use of a unipolar scale [56], whereas Leibovitz and colleagues [5] used a bipolar scale.…”

Belief in conspiracy theories and attitudes toward political violence

“…1 As of 2021, there is no doubt that conspiracy theories can have important political implications. Research in Europe and in the US shows that belief in conspiracies is associated with political support, ideological identity and populist attitudes (see Oliver and Wood, 2014;Mancosu et al, 2017;Silva et al, 2017;Walter and Drochon, 2020). However, as the two examples above illustrate, the correlates of conspiracy belief may go well beyond electoral support and opinions, concerning the modes of political action as well: specifically, conspiracy theories may be associated with violent behaviors and attitudes.…”