How social identity shapes conspiratorial belief
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Abstract
While conspiracy theories may offer benefits to those who believe in them, they can also foster intergroup conflict, threaten democracy, and undercut public health. We argue that the motivations behind conspiracy theory belief are often related to social identity. Conspiracy theories are well-positioned to fulfill social identity needs such as belongingness goals, the need to think highly of one's in-group, and the need to feel secure in one's group status. Understanding the social motives that attract people to conspiracy theories should be a focus of future research, and may be key to creating more successful interventions to reduce socially harmful conspiracy theories.
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Because social media platforms allow information to spread with less friction than in traditional news outlets, misinformation and conspiracy theories are able to go rapidly viral.
“Because social media platforms allow information to spread with less friction than in traditional news outlets, such as newspapers or television news, misinformation and conspiracy theories are able to go rapidly viral (Robertson et al. 2022, Van Bavel et al. 2021a, van der Linden et al. 2021).”
From Social Media and Morality. (2024) · cites this paper as Robertson et al. 2022
The Introduction says internet and social media let conspiracy theories spread through large communities, and New Directions says they may go viral online. The paper does not compare social media with newspapers or television, attribute the spread to lower friction, or establish that misinformation generally goes rapidly viral. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredConspiracy believers may self-select into online communities that share and reinforce their beliefs.
“This may lead conspiracy believers to self-select into online communities that in turn share and reinforce their beliefs (Robertson et al. 2022).”
From Social Media and Morality. (2024) · cites this paper as Robertson et al. 2022
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Cited by
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Robertson, C. E., Pretus, C., Rathje, S., Harris, E. A., & Van Bavel, J. J.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-10
- Volume
- 47
- Pages
- 101423
- ISSN
- 2352-250X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4285605553
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 3
- FWCI
- 1.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Gates Foundation
- Gates Cambridge Trust (1144)
- John Templeton Foundation (61378)
- AEG Foundation
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs
- Keywords
- conspiracy theories, social identity, conspiracy beliefs, sense of belonging, in-group favoritism, group status, social motives, intergroup conflict
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Public Health, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Identification
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