Conspiracy Beliefs As a Response to Adverse Societal Conditions: The Role of Low State Resilience, Low Societal Freedom, and High Cultural Tightness

Poster Session VIII

Keyword: Myths and Misinformation

Abstract: Conspiracy beliefs are mostly described as individual maladaptive tendencies. Extending this approach, we highlight the role of macro-level deficits that induce conspiracy beliefs especially during crises. Multimodal data (N_total=51,953) showed that lower resilience and stricter cultural norms of a state and restricted societal freedoms of citizens predicted higher conspiracy beliefs.

• Maciej Siemiątkowski (Presenting Author)
• Theofilos Gkinopoulos (Author)
• Michał Bilewicz (Author)