Political Extremism Predicts Belief in Conspiracy Theories
Abstract
Historical records suggest that the political extremes—at both the “left” and the “right”—substantially endorsed conspiracy beliefs about other-minded groups. The present contribution empirically tests whether extreme political ideologies, at either side of the political spectrum, are positively associated with an increased tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. Four studies conducted in the United States and the Netherlands revealed a quadratic relationship between strength of political ideology and conspiracy beliefs about various political issues. Moreover, participants’ belief in simple political solutions to societal problems mediated conspiracy beliefs among both left- and right-wing extremists. Finally, the effects described here were not attributable to general attitude extremity. Our conclusion is that political extremism and conspiracy beliefs are strongly associated due to a highly structured thinking style that is aimed at making sense of societal events.
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“Previous work has shown that a belief in simple solutions for complex societal problems is strongly associated with believing in various conspiracy theories (Van Prooijen and Douglas, 2017; Van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
BackgroundThe psychological and political correlates of conspiracy theory beliefs
Uscinski, J. E., Enders, A., Diekman, A., Funchion, J., Klofstad, C. A., Kübler, S., Murthi, M., Premaratne, K., Seelig, M. I., Verdear, D., et al. (2022) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-022-25617-0 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
“The vast majority of research on the political correlates of conspiracy theory beliefs focuses on partisanship and ideology 16, 18–22 .”
Fasce, A., & Picó, A. (2019) · Science & Education · doi:10.1007/s11191-018-00022-0 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Hart, J., & Graether, M. (2018) · Journal of Individual Differences · doi:10.1027/1614-0001/a000268 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
The role of system identity threat in conspiracy theory endorsement
Federico, C. M., Williams, A. L., & Vitriol, J. A. (2018) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2495 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Medical conspiracy theories: cognitive science and implications for ethics
Andrade, G. E. (2020) · Medicine Health Care and Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s11019-020-09951-6 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Belief in conspiracy theories and attitudes toward political violence
Vegetti, F., & Littvay, L. (2021) · Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica · doi:10.1017/ipo.2021.17 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Using Social and Behavioural Science to Support COVID-19 Pandemic ResponsePreprint
Bavel, J. J. V., D, K. B. A., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A. K., Cikara, M., Crockett, M. J., Crum, A. J., Douglas, K. M., Druckman, J. N., et al. (2022) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4178356 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Cordonier, L., Cafiero, F., & Bronner, G. (2021) · Social Science Information · doi:10.1177/05390184211018961 · Cited by 55 · see citing works
“Finally, some studies have found that conspiratorial beliefs are negatively related to educational level (Douglas, Sutton, Callan, et al., 2016; Mancosu, Vassallo, and Vezzoni, 2017; Van Prooijen, 2017).”
InfluentialPantazi, M., Papaioannou, K., & van Prooijen, J. (2021) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12779 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Jolley, D., Douglas, K. M., Skipper, Y., Thomas, E., & Cookson, D. (2021) · British Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjdp.12368 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Fong, A., Roozenbeek, J., Goldwert, D., Rathje, S., & van der Linden, S. (2021) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/1368430220987596 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
“…correlates of conspiratorial thinking (e.g., Abalakina-Paap et al., 1999; Goertzel, 1994; Swami et al., 2011; van der Linden et al., 2020; van Prooijen et al., 2015), or how exposure to conspiracy theories affects (anti)social beliefs and behavior (van der Linden, 2015; see Douglas et al.,…”
BackgroundStoica, C., & Umbreș, R. (2020) · European Societies: The Official Journal of the European Sociological Association · doi:10.1080/14616696.2020.1823450 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Investigating Differences in Crowdsourced News Credibility Assessment
Bhuiyan, M. M., Zhang, A. X., Sehat, C. M., & Mitra, T. (2020) · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1145/3415164 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
“with traction across the political spectrum as are a number of conspiracy theories, with the former attitude now represented in general crowds in contrast to the continued fringe nature of the latter [34, 70]. The relationship between credibility and a strong partisan perspective may not exist in these cases, but we m…”
van der Wal, R. C., Sutton, R. M., Lange, J., & Braga, J. N. (2018) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.2507 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Cisłak, A., Marchlewska, M., Wójcik, A. D., Śliwiński, K., Molenda, Z., Szczepańska, D., & Cichocka, A. K. (2021) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/1368430220959451 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
“…work linking individual narcissism (Cichocka, Marchlewska, & Golec de Zavala, 2016) and political conservatism (van der Linden et al., 2020; cf. van Prooijen et al., 2015) to more generalized conspiracy beliefs, as well as with research showing that provaccination attitudes are less prevalent…”
BackgroundFrom bad to worse: Avoidance coping with stress increases conspiracy beliefs
Marchlewska, M., Green, R., Cichocka, A. K., Molenda, Z., & Douglas, K. M. (2021) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjso.12494 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs: a systematic reviewPreprint
van Mulukom, V., Pummerer, L., Alper, S., Bai, H., Čavojová, V., Farias, J. E. M., Kay, C. S., Lazarević, L. B., Lobato, E. J. C., Marinthe, G., et al. (2020) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/u8yah · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Topic Modeling Reveals Distinct Interests within an Online Conspiracy Forum
Klein, C., Clutton, P., & Polito, V. (2018) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00189 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
“…“who tends to believe [conspiracy theories], and why” (Leman, 2007, 36), or inquire into the “psychological origin” of conspiracy theories (Swami et al., 2014, 573), or discuss the “similar underlying psychological processes” that are common to conspiracy believers (Van Prooijen et al., 2015, 2).”
Backgroundvan Kessel, S., Sajuria, J., & Hauwaert, S. M. V. (2020) · West European Politics · doi:10.1080/01402382.2019.1700448 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
“…individuals at both the radical ‘left’ and ‘right’ ends of the political spectrum are susceptible to conspiratorial thinking (Oliver and Rahn 2016; van Prooijen et al. 2015), and prone to simplifying the political domain and (unjustified) judgemental certainty (Lammers et al. 2017; van Prooijen…”
BackgroundPsychometric assessment of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale
Drinkwater, K., Dagnall, N., Denovan, A., & Neave, N. (2020) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0230365 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
“Examples include the Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (BCTI; [22]), the Belief in Specific Conspiracies Scale (BSCS; [27]), and the Composite Conspiracy Beliefs Scales (CCBS; [28]) (see [26] for a detailed list of measures).”
BackgroundJolley, D., Douglas, K. M., Marchlewska, M., Cichocka, A. K., & Sutton, R. M. (2021) · Journal of Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/jasp.12829 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
“However, van Prooijen et al. (2015) also found that conspiracy beliefs were stronger on the far right, which is a finding that has been supported by other scholars (e.g., Galliford & Furnham, 2017; van der Linden, et al., 2020).”
Ideological Responses to the EU Refugee Crisis
van Prooijen, J., Krouwel, A. P. M., & Emmer, J. (2017) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550617731501 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
“…connected to decreased integrative complexity (Conway et al., 2016; Tetlock et al., 1994), conspiracy theories (Imhoff, 2015; Inglehart, 1987; van Prooijen et al. 2015), and simpler perceptual categories (Lammers et al., in press), these findings are the first to illuminate how political…”
BackgroundSelf-citationPopulist attitudes and conspiratorial thinking
Balta, E., Kaltwasser, C. R., & Yağcı, A. H. (2021) · Party Politics · doi:10.1177/13540688211003304 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
“…which has proliferated recently, shows that a belief in conspiracy theories is associated with alienation from politics (Goertzel, 1994), political extremism (Van Prooijen et al., 2015), lacking trust in institutions (Miller et al., 2016) and low levels of education (Van Prooijen, 2017).”
BackgroundAre misinformation, antiscientific claims, and conspiracy theories for political extremists?
Enders, A. M., & Uscinski, J. E. (2021) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/1368430220960805 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
“The sign of the quadratic term is, however, opposite of what previous research finds (van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
BackgroundResultInfluentialHow (Ir)rational is it to believe in contradictory conspiracy theories?
Lukić, P., Žeželj, I., & Stanković, B. (2019) · Europe’s Journal of Psychology · doi:10.5964/ejop.v15i1.1690 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Who Supports QAnon? A Case Study in Political Extremism
Enders, A. M., Uscinski, J. E., Klofstad, C., Wuchty, S., Seelig, M. I., Funchion, J., Murthi, M. N., Premaratne, K., & Stoler, J. B. (2021) · The Journal of Politics · doi:10.1086/717850 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
“Not only is this predisposition consistently related to specific conspiracy theory beliefs (Miller 2020), but others have found that extreme political self-identifiers exhibit higher levels of conspiracy belief (van Prooijen et al. 2015).”
BackgroundWho Are Conspiracy Theorists? A Comprehensive Approach to Explaining Conspiracy Beliefs
Enders, A. M., & Smallpage, S. M. (2019) · Social Science Quarterly · doi:10.1111/ssqu.12711 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
The Politics of Vaccine Hesitancy: An Ideological Dual-Process Approach
Bilewicz, M., & Soral, W. (2021) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/19485506211055295 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
“Although a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories is visible on both extremes of the political spectrum, several specific conspiracy theories are endorsed more by the rightwing supporters (van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
BackgroundEuroscepticism, Democracy and the Media
Leruth, B., Kutiyski, Y., Krouwel, A. P. M., Startin, N., Caiani, M., & Guerra, S. (2017) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/978-1-137-59643-7 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
Self-citationOf precarity and conspiracy: Introducing a socio‐functional model of conspiracy beliefs
Adam‐Troian, J., Chayinska, M., Paladino, M. P., Uluğ, Ö. M., Vaes, J., & Wagner‐Egger, P. (2022) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjso.12597 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
“…to greater endorsement of conspiracy beliefs (Garrett & Weeks, 2017; Goertzel, 1994; Green & Douglas, 2018; Mancosu et al., 2017; Oliver & Wood, 2014; Radnitz & Underwood, 2015; Stempel et al., 2007; Swami et al., 2016; Uscinski & Parent, 2014; van Prooijen, 2017; van Prooijen et al., 2015).”
The rise and fall of rationality in language
Scheffer, M., van de Leemput, I. A., Weinans, E., & Bollen, J. (2021) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2107848118 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
“Conspiracy theories originate particularly in times of uncertainty and crisis (35, 37) and generally depict established institutions as hiding the truth and sustaining an unfair situation (38).”
BackgroundTheir own worst enemy? Collective narcissists are willing to conspire against their in‐group
Biddlestone, M., Cichocka, A., Główczewski, M., & Cisłak, A. (2022) · British Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjop.12569 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Bowes, S. M., & Tasimi, A. (2022) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2022.104220 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
How social identity shapes conspiratorial belief
Robertson, C. E., Pretus, C., Rathje, S., Harris, E. A., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2022) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101423 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Who Believes in Conspiracy Theories in Great Britain and Europe?
Drochon, H. H. (2018) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oso/9780190844073.003.0022 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Farias, J. E. M., & Pilati, R. (2021) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-021-01416-0 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Conspiracy theories and social movements studies: A research agenda
Bertuzzi, N. (2021) · Sociology Compass · doi:10.1111/soc4.12945 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Šrol, J. (2021) · Thinking & Reasoning · doi:10.1080/13546783.2021.1938220 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
“…ESBs and important negative real-life outcomes, such as risky health choices (Browne et al., 2015; Grebe & Nattrass, 2012), political extremism (van Prooijen et al., 2015), justification and support for violence (Jolley & Paterson, 2020), or the tendency to perceive nonsensical bullshit statements…”
BackgroundVranić, A., Hromatko, I., & Tonković, M. (2022) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.931865 · Cited by 53 · see citing works
Belief traps: Tackling the inertia of harmful beliefs
Scheffer, M., Borsboom, D., Nieuwenhuis, S., & Westley, F. R. (2022) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2203149119 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
“Conspiracy theories generally depict established institutions or groups as hiding the truth and sustaining an unfair situation (83).”
Background
- Authors
- van Prooijen, J.-W., Krouwel, A. P. M., & Pollet, T. V.
- Affiliations
- VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- Venue
- Social Psychological and Personality Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-01-12
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 570-578
- ISSN
- 1948-5506 (ISSN-L)
- 1948-5514
- OpenAlex
- W2327590731
- Cited by
- 626
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 38 · 2025: 62 · 2024: 69 · 2023: 71 · 2022: 115 · 2021: 111 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 54 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 8
- FWCI
- 96.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Psychological and Personality Science (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion)
- Northumbria Research Link (Northumbria University) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- political extremism, conspiracy beliefs, political ideology, left-wing extremism, right-wing extremism, attitude extremity
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