The DOI matches its Crossref record; 41 of the 41 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
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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“Various authors noted that the crippled epistemology that characterizes political extremism is also inherent to conspiracy beliefs (Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009; Swami et al., 2013).”
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Metadata
- 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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