scholarly journals Covid-19 conspiracy beliefs and containment-related behaviour: The role of political trust

2021 ◽  
Vol 175 ◽  
pp. 110697
Author(s):  
Tijana Karić ◽  
Janko Međedović
Keyword(s):  
Political Trust ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs

scholarly journals COVID-19 CONSPIRACY BELIEFS AND CONTAINMENT-RELATED BEHAVIOUR: THE ROLE OF POLITICAL TRUST

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tijana Karić ◽  
Janko Mileta Međedović
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Health Behaviour ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Zero Order ◽  
State Of Emergency ◽  
Time Points ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
The Mean

The roles of conspiracy beliefs and political trust for public health behaviour have been seldomly studied prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we tested whether conspiracy beliefs affect containment-related behaviour in relation to the COVID-19 epidemic, and whether this relationship is mediated by political trust, preference for saving economy or for saving lives. The data were collected at two time points, at the beginning of the epidemic and after the state of emergency was introduced. The sample consisted of 802 adults from Serbia (356 at time 1 and 446 at time 2), of which around 60% female, with the mean age of around 33. The results indicate that holding more conspiracy beliefs is related to less adherence to containment-related behaviour, both directly and indirectly, via decreased political trust. Preference for saving lives has a direct effect on containment-related behaviour, while preference for saving economy plays no important role in this relationship, although it has a negative zero-order association with containment-related behaviour. The findings are interpreted in the light of the importance of governmental epidemic management for containing, i.e. preventing the spread of infectious diseases.

The Arts as a Polarized Issue and the Role of Political Trust in Promoting the Arts: Evidence From the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Lim Jae Young ◽  
Woo Harin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Moderating Role

The arts in the United States, for a long time received strong support from both sides of the political aisle. However, in recent years, the arts have been transformed into a partisan issue that pits conservatives against liberals. The article points to the importance of political trust as a means of helping conservatives overcome their ideological inclinations and support the arts. Scholars argue that political trust influences more strongly individuals who perceive a given policy to be one that imposes ideological risks for them compared with those without such risks. Focusing on the moderating role of political trust, the article examines whether political trust can help alleviate the conservatives’ hostility to the arts. Relying on the 2016 General Social Survey, the article finds that conservatives have no direct relationship with arts spending, but they will be more likely to support arts spending when this is contingent upon political trust.

scholarly journals Socioeconomic Status and COVID-19-Related Psychological Panic in China: The Role of Trust in Government and Authoritarian Personality

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (20) ◽  
pp. 10888
Author(s):  
Xiaona Xie ◽  
Tingting Wu ◽  
Yue Zhang ◽  
Yongyu Guo
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Negative Association ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Authoritarian Personality ◽  
Chinese Sample ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic

Although the health and economic risks of COVID-19 may differ for higher- and lower-socioeconomic-status (SES) populations, some studies found that people with lower SES do not necessarily experience more psychological panic. In this research, we examine how SES is related with psychological panic during the COVID-19 pandemic using a large nationwide Chinese sample. Participants were 933 adults (mean age = 30.04, SD = 8.19) who completed an online questionnaire between 11 and 12 February 2020. Lower SES individuals have higher trust in government and thus experience less psychological panic, and the indirect effect of this trust suppresses the direct negative association between SES and psychological panic. In addition to this difference in trust in government between lower- and higher-status individuals, the indirect effect of the trust only exists among people with low (not high) authoritarian personalities. This study provides evidence that political trust may serve as a buffer, suppressing the negative association between SES and psychological panic; thus, policies and actions enhancing political trust are vital to support the mental health of individuals with lower SES during the pandemic, especially for citizens with low authoritarian personalities.

Dilemmas of Distrust: Conspiracy Beliefs, Elite Rhetoric, and Motivated Reasoning

2021 ◽  
pp. 106591292110345
Author(s):  
Scott Radnitz
Keyword(s):  
Relative Weight ◽  
State Level ◽  
Motivated Reasoning ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
The Individual

Conspiracy theories are playing an increasingly prominent role worldwide in both political rhetoric and popular belief. Previous research has emphasized the individual-level factors behind conspiracy belief but paid less attention to the role of elite framing, while focusing mostly on domestic political contexts. This study assesses the relative weight of official conspiracy claims and motivated biases in producing conspiracy beliefs, in two countries where identities other than partisanship are salient: Georgia and Kazakhstan. I report the results of a survey experiment that depicts a possible conspiracy and varies the content of official claims and relevant contextual details. The results show that motivated reasoning stemming from state-level geopolitical identities is strongly associated with higher conspiracy belief, whereas official claims have little effect on people’s perceptions of conspiracy. Respondents who exhibit higher conspiracy ideation are more likely to perceive a conspiracy but do not weight motivated biases or official claims differently from people with lower conspiratorial predispositions. The findings indicate the importance of (geopolitical) identities in shaping conspiracy beliefs and highlight some of the constraints facing elites who seek to benefit from the use of conspiracy claims.

scholarly journals Role of Conspiracy Mentality and Paranormal Beliefs in Predicting Conspiracy Beliefs Among Neopagans

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-97
Author(s):  
Asbjørn Dyrendal ◽  
Leif Kennair ◽  
James Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Political Identity ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Single Item ◽  
Political Identification ◽  
Gender And Education ◽  
Paranormal Beliefs ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Conspiracy Thinking

Recent studies on conspiracy thinking has concluded that the strongest predictor of the tendency towards conspiratorial thinking is a one-dimensional construct-conspiracy mentality-that is relatively stable over time and valid across cultures. Lantian et al. (2016) found that a single, elaborate question can work as a measure of conspiracy beliefs. We assess the validity of this question for an untypical, religious group: self-identified Neopagans. We also test some recent findings on the relation between conspiracy thinking and paranormal beliefs, attitudes towards group equality, political identification, age, gender, and education. The general patterns hold up well in our investigation, but there was a clear distinction between conspiracy theories about powerful actors and those about minorities. The single-item measure was the largest predictor of the former kind of conspiracy belief followed by level of paranormal beliefs. Anti-egalitarianism and holding a right-wing political identity were the strongest predictors of conspiracy beliefs about minorities. Education was negatively related to conspiracy beliefs of all kinds.

scholarly journals Support for insider parties: The role of political trust in a longitudinal-comparative perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882097692
Author(s):  
Constanza Sanhueza Petrarca ◽  
Heiko Giebler ◽  
Bernhard Weßels
Keyword(s):  
Cross Section ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Institutional Trust ◽  
Window Of Opportunity ◽  
Aggregate Level ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Electoral Performance

European democracies have experienced drastic changes in electoral competition. Voter support for insider parties that have traditionally governed has declined while support for radical and populist parties has increased. Simultaneously, citizens’ declining political trust has become a concern, as confidence in political institutions and actors is low across numerous countries. Interestingly, the linkage between political trust and support for insider parties has not been empirically established but deduced from the fact that outsider parties are often supported by dissatisfied citizens. We address this gap adopting both an institutional- and an actor-centered approach by investigating whether trust in parliaments and in parties is associated with the electoral performance of insider parties on the aggregate level. Combining different data sources in a novel way, we apply time-series cross-section models to a dataset containing 30 countries and 137 elections from 1998 to 2018. Our results show that when political trust is low, particularly institutional trust, insider parties receive less electoral support. Hence, we provide empirical evidence that decreasing levels of political trust are the downfall of insider parties, thereby opening a window of opportunity for challenging outsider parties.

Rationality in Conspiracy Beliefs: The Role of Perceived Motive

2013 ◽  
Vol 113 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Preston R. Bost ◽  
Stephen G. Prunier
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs

Previous work has raised the possibility that the perception of motive may contribute to conspiracy beliefs. The current study tested the prediction that conspiracy beliefs will strengthen as the apparent motive of the alleged conspirators strengthens. Participants ( N = 57) rated the plausibility of fictional conspiracy theories, manipulated for the strength of direct evidence for the conspiracy and the type of outcome (gain vs. no gain) experienced by the alleged conspirators after the event. Ratings revealed that participants were more likely to believe conspiracy claims not only if the evidence was strong but also if the apparent motive was high, and that the effect of apparent motive was independent of the strength of the evidence. The findings suggested that information about apparent motive may help create and sustain conspiracy beliefs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document