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Conspire 20161/31/2024 for which we varied only the partisanship of the accused conspirators. In our second analysis, we provide an alternative test of the asymmetry thesis by examining beliefs in five “content-controlled” conspiracy theories in the U.S. We buttress this analysis with an examination of the relationship between left–right ideology and belief in 11 conspiracy theories across 20 additional countries. As this impasse persists, much hangs in the balance, including the development of strategies for combating the spread of conspiracy theories (Wittenberg & Berinsky, 2020).įirst, we examine correlations between partisanship/ideology and beliefs in 52 conspiracy theories in the U.S. On the other hand, some studies fail to identify such asymmetries, instead concluding that conspiracy theorizing is a “widespread tendency across the entire ideological spectrum” (Oliver & Wood, 2014 see also Enders et al., 2021). On the one hand, several studies find supportive evidence for this asymmetry thesis in the form of correlations between Republican/conservative self-identification and various operationalizations of conspiricism (e.g., van der Linden et al., 2021). Are, for example, partisanship or political ideology related to conspiracy theorizing? One argument, dating back at least to Richard Hofstadter’s The Paranoid Style ( 1964), holds that Republicans and conservatives are more likely to believe conspiracy theories than Democrats and liberals. While an emerging research agenda has identified many psychological factors associated with beliefs in conspiracy theories (Douglas et al., 2019), the literature remains divided about the political characteristics associated with those beliefs. Instead, the strength and direction of the relationship between political orientations and conspiricism is dependent on the characteristics of the specific conspiracy beliefs employed by researchers and the socio-political context in which those ideas are considered. In no instance do we observe systematic evidence of a political asymmetry. Finally, we inspect correlations between political orientations and the general predisposition to believe in conspiracy theories over the span of a decade. In our second test, we hold constant the content of the conspiracy theories investigated-manipulating only the partisanship of the theorized villains-to decipher whether those on the left or right are more likely to accuse political out-groups of conspiring. this analysis is buttressed by an examination of beliefs in 11 conspiracy theories across 20 more countries. First, we examine the relationship between beliefs in 52 conspiracy theories and both partisanship and ideology in the U.S. Employing 20 surveys of Americans from 2012 to 2021 (total n = 37,776), as well as surveys of 20 additional countries spanning six continents (total n = 26,416), we undertake an expansive investigation of the asymmetry thesis. Since conspiracy theory beliefs are associated with dangerous orientations and behaviors, it is imperative that social scientists better understand the connection between conspiracy theories and political orientations. However, the evidence for this proposition is mixed. A sizable literature tracing back to Richard Hofstadter’s The Paranoid Style (1964) argues that Republicans and conservatives are more likely to believe conspiracy theories than Democrats and liberals.
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