Conspiracy theories as opportunistic attributions of power
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A significant trend of research construes conspiracy theories as a power challenging phenomenon. Yet, there is evidence that conspiracy theories are sometimes promoted by members of relatively powerful groups (e.g., a national majority) in order to target relatively powerless groups (e.g., immigrants). Thus, conspiracy theories are not necessarily beliefs held by the relatively powerless. However, they always attribute power to the allegedly conspiring parties. As a matter of fact, without such power, the groups accused of conspiring would be unable to carry out their plans. In contrast to assuming conspiracy theories reflect objective power imbalances, we propose that they may be construed as opportunistic attributions of power that allow individuals to advance their interests (e.g., validate their worldview, strengthen or challenge social hierarchies).
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Conspiracy theories are sometimes weaponized against marginalized groups to justify oppression.
“and are sometimes weaponized against them to justify oppression (Nera, Bertin, and Klein 2022).”
From Epistemic Injustice in Generative AI (2024) · cites this paper as Nera, Bertin, and Klein 2022
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Epistemic Injustice in Generative AI
Kay, J., Kasirzadeh, A., & Mohamed, S. (2024) · Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society · doi:10.1609/aies.v7i1.31671 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
- Authors
- Nera, K., Bertin, P., & Klein, O.
- Affiliations
- Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE)
- Corresponding author
- Nera, Kenzo
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-10
- Volume
- 47
- Pages
- 101381
- ISSN
- 2352-250X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4281683531
- Cited by
- 34
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 4
- FWCI
- 1.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Dépôt institutionnel de l'Université libre de Bruxelles (Université Libre de Bruxelles) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Keywords
- conspiracy theories, power imbalance, social hierarchy, immigrants
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Social Perception, Emigrants and Immigrants
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