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Belief in U.S. Government Conspiracies Against Blacks among Black and White College Students: Powerlessness or System Blame?
Abstract
Black Americans are far more likely than White Americans to endorse theories about conspiracies by the U.S. government against Blacks. The present study explored the predictors of these conspiracy beliefs for 91 Black and 96 White college students. Two explanations for belief in these conspiracies were considered, one focusing on political powerless and externality of attributions and the other focusing on system blame for Blacks’ disadvantaged status. Regression analyses supported the view that belief in these conspiracy theories is related to blaming problems of Black Americans on prejudice and discrimination. Race was a powerful predictor of belief in these conspiracies even when socioeconomic status was controlled. Furthermore, the race effect was partially mediated by the system blame measure but not by political powerlessness or greater externality of attributional style. System blame was a much stronger predictor of conspiracy beliefs for Black than for White students. Conspiracy beliefs were positively associated with the racial self-esteem of Black students and negatively for White students. Clinical implications and implications for intergroup relations are discussed.
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“Members of groups who have objectively low (vs. high) status because of their ethnicity (Crocker, Luhtanen, Broadnax, & Blaine, 1999) or income (Uscinski & Parent, 2014) are more likely to endorse conspiracy theories.”
From The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories (2017) · cites this paper as Crocker, Luhtanen, Broadnax, & Blaine, 1999
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Metadata
- Authors
- Crocker, J., Luhtanen, R., Broadnax, S., & Blaine, B. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- University at Buffalo, State University of New York (US)
- Hofstra University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Crocker, Jennifer
- ORCID
- Crocker, Jennifer
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1999-08
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 941-953
- ISSN
- 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7433
- OpenAlex
- W2098726774
- Semantic Scholar
- 2be566a63b67b25bb96c5a28b5ba5fc70cb4cfbd
- Cited by
- 283
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 47 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 21.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- 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 › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Keywords
- conspiracy beliefs, racial prejudice, political impotence, attributional style, racial differences, African American college students, White college students, intergroup relations, socioeconomic status
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