What role does the media play in supporting conspiracy theories? What causes some people to be more susceptible to conspiracies? In this article, the authors explore conspiracy thinking and the media, in particular right-wing media. Check out the abstract below, and then click through to the main article to learn more:
Conspiracy thinking and the role of media use: Exploring the antecedents of conspiratorial predispositions
Peer-reviewed research by: Jesper Strömbäck, Elena Broda, Salma Bouchafra, Sofia Johansson, Gregor Rettenegger, and Elina Lindgren
In contrast to beliefs in specific conspiracy theories, conspiratorial predispositions refer to people’s propensity to view the world in conspiratorial terms. As such, they are one of the most important antecedents of beliefs in specific conspiracy theories. Understanding the antecedents of conspiratorial predispositions is hence important. Despite this, there is still only limited research on the antecedents of conspiratorial predispositions. Previous research has also not taken the role of media use into account, even though media constitute the most important source of politically and societally information. To remedy this, in the current study we use a large-scale panel study in Sweden to investigate the antecedents of conspiratorial predispositions, with a particular focus on the role of media use. Among other things, the results show that use of right-wing political alternative media is one of the most important antecedents of conspiratorial predispositions, even when accounting for ideological leaning and ideological extremity.
Click here to read the full open-access article, published in 2023 in the European Journal of Communication.
Full Reference //
Strömbäck, J., Broda, E., Bouchafra, S., Johansson, S., Rettenegger, G., & Lindgren, E. (2023). Conspiracy thinking and the role of media use: Exploring the antecedents of conspiratorial predispositions. European Journal of Communication, 38(3), 255–271.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).Knowledge Stitch amplifies open-access peer-reviewed academic research. If you have research you would like readers to check out, click here to suggest your work.