Defining and Explaining Conspiracy Theories: Comparing the Lay Representations of Conspiracy Believers and Non-Believers

Abstract

Despite a growing literature on the topic, little is known about how individuals perceive the label “conspiracy theory”. In two studies, we compare lay social representations of conspiracy theories, and how these are influenced by individuals’ own conspiracy beliefs. In addition, we examine how these representations relate to how scholars define and explain CTs. In Study 1, we used lexicometric analysis to explore the vocabulary that French participants (n = 939) spontaneously associated with the notion of ‘conspiracy theory’ and the personal definitions they provided. The representation of participants scoring high on the generic conspiracist beliefs scale was centred on the content of conspiracy theories (e.g., “lies” or “government”). By contrast, the representation of participants scoring low on the conspiracist beliefs scale was centred on the believer (e.g., “paranoia” or “cognitive biases”). They proposed definitions of conspiracy theories centred on the function(s) conspiracy theories supposedly fulfil for the believer (e.g., simplify complex realities). To make sure that these results did not merely express participants’ endorsement or rejection of conspiracy theories, we carried out a second study. In Study 2 (n = 272), we found that the more participants endorsed generic conspiracist beliefs, the less they mobilised intra-individual causes (e.g., reasoning biases) to explain why some people believe in CTs that they did not endorse themselves. This research shows that people’s representations of conspiracy theories differ depending on their conspiracy beliefs.

racionalidad de las teorías conspirativas. Una aproximación desde Max Weber y Raymond Boudon

“…El uso habitual de términos como «conspiranoia» y «conspiranoico» en las conversaciones cotidianas y en las redes sociales, en los medios de comunicación y a veces incluso en entornos académicos resulta elocuente respecto a la percepción que comúnmente se tiene de las teorías conspirativas y quienes creen en ellas. Así calificada, la teoría de la conspiración aparece como un fenómeno patológico, próximo a la enfermedad mental, cuando no directamente identificado con ella (Leveaux et al, 2022), y por tanto enfrentado al dominio de la racionalidad.…”