| Popis: |
Understanding belief in conspiracy theories and the psycho-social profile of people who endorse them is a major contemporary challenge for social scientists. Conspiracy theories have been linked to a series of political attitudes and behaviours that can be considered negative for modern societies and democracies, namely populist (Erisen et al., 2021), anti-democratic attitudes (Albertson & Guiler, 2020) and illegal non-normative behaviour (Imhoff et al., 2020). However, recent research has also revealed more positive correlates of conspiracy beliefs such as increased support for more direct democracy (Pantazi et al., 2022). In this research we wish to integrate these apparently contradicting findings. We suggest that belief in conspiracy theories is positively associated with both more and less democratic political alternatives in conspiracists' desperate attempt to change the political status quo. We will measure the link between conspiracy beliefs, support for democracy, autocracy, and anarchism in a series of surveys and experiments. We will test this assumption through a vignette experimental design in the United States. |
