scholarly journals Conspiracy theories before and after the Greek crisis: Discursive patterns and political use of the “enemy” theme

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Athena Skoulariki
Keyword(s):  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Greek Crisis ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Discursive Patterns

scholarly journals Political Threat, Ideology, and Conspiracy Endorsement

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Schneider ◽  
Ingrid Johnsen Haas
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Before And After ◽  
American Society ◽  
Over Time

Recent U.S. Presidential elections were unusual in the number of unsubstantiated claims made about the candidates and government in general. While conspiracy theories are sometimes dismissed as existing only on the fringes of American society, more recent research has suggested that even average Americans endorse some conspiracy theories on occasion. Although scholars have suggested that the ideological undertones of conspiratorial beliefs shift with presidential election outcomes, little work has examined the mechanism linking political ideology to conspiratorial beliefs. In this paper, we examine whether perceived political threat increases the likelihood that individuals will support ideologically-relevant conspiracy theories using three studies. In Study 1 and Study 2, we examine how political threat impacts the endorsement of conspiracy theories before and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In Study 3, we use an experimental design to manipulate political threat and measure conspiracy theory endorsement. We find that the reasons for endorsing conspiracy theories may shift over time as a function of current motivation to endorse or support ideas that benefit one’s political ingroup and that political threat is an important mechanism for understanding why political identity is sometimes associated with endorsement of conspiracies.

The Effect of Conspiratorial Thinking and Motivated Reasoning on Belief in Election Fraud

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 933-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Edelson ◽  
Alexander Alduncin ◽  
Christopher Krewson ◽  
James A. Sieja ◽  
Joseph E. Uscinski
Keyword(s):  
Party Identification ◽  
Electoral Fraud ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Voter Identification ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Election Fraud ◽  
The Individual ◽  
2012 Election ◽  
Voter Id

Belief in electoral fraud has received heightened attention due to elite rhetoric and controversial voter identification (ID) laws. Using a two-wave national survey administered before and after the 2012 election, we examine the individual-level correlates of belief in a range of election-related conspiracy theories. Our data show that partisanship affects the timing and content of belief in election-related conspiracy theories, but a general disposition toward conspiratorial thinking strongly influences those beliefs. Support for voter ID laws, in contrast, appears to be driven largely by party identification through elite-mass linkages. Our analysis suggests that belief in election fraud is a common and predictable consequence of both underlying conspiratorial thinking and motivated partisan reasoning.

scholarly journals Conspiracy theories before and after the Greek crisis: Discursive patterns and political use of the “enemy” theme

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Athena Skoulariki
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Western Us ◽  
The Social ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Attribution Of Blame ◽  
Political Praxis

Conspiracy theories have been associated to a paranoid way of thinking; however they are not always marginal and utterly irrational. Conspiracist narratives reflect rival strategies of interpretation, and can have a real impact on the social and political praxis. More than factual accuracy, I suggest that what distinguishes a conspiracy theory is a type of discourse, its key features being: suspicion, intentionality, personification, speculation and denunciation.This paper examines conspiracy theories that dominated Greek public discourse before and after the economic crisis of the years 2010s, particularly those introduced by political actors as a means of political persuasion and mobilisation. Greek political culture and the discredit of the political system since 2010 led to frequent expressions of distrust towards political elites and foreign “powers”. My analysis focuses on the acceptability of conspiracy theories in relation with social representations, dominant stereotypes and widely shared interpretative schemata.The following cases of conspiracy theories are discussed: a) the wildfires that ravaged large parts of Greece in 2007, supposedly set by “foreign agents”; b) the alleged assassination plot in 2008-2009 against the PM Karamanlis by Western / US secret services; c) the conspiracy theories attributing the economic crisis to a deliberate foreign plot against Greece. The paper examines in particular the attribution of blame to presumed “enemies”, in line with nationalist discursive themes and stereotypes.

scholarly journals Are COVID-19 conspiracies a threat to public health? Psychological characteristics and health protective behaviours of believers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Juanchich ◽  
Miroslav Sirota ◽  
Daniel Jolles ◽  
lilith whiley
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Psychological Characteristics ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Health Initiatives ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Mind Set ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Protective Behaviours

The fast-changing COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to many conspiracy theories, and these have the potential to undermine public health measures and safeguarding behaviours. We conducted three studies before and during the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom (UK) (n = 302, 404 and 399) to (i) identify the prevalence of COVID-19 conspiracy theories in the UK, (ii) map their socio-psychological predictors, and (iii) investigate their association with health safeguarding behaviours. We found COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs were prevalent (25% of participants endorsed at least one) and predicted by beliefs in unrelated conspiracies, a conspiracy mind-set, distrust in governmental authorities, education, and cognitive reflection. Unexpectedly, COVID-19 conspiracy believers adhered to basic health guidelines both before and after the lockdown as strictly as non-believers (e.g., washing hands, social distancing) and adopted more advanced health protective behaviours not (yet) officially recommended in the UK (e.g., wearing a mask, washing groceries with soap). Conspiracy believers were also more reluctant to install the contact-tracing app, get tested for and vaccinated against COVID-19 because of the perceived risks associated with these procedures. We discuss psychological characteristics that explain the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and people’s behaviours and intentions, and suggest practical recommendations for public health initiatives.

scholarly journals Plandemic Revisited: A Product of Planned Disinformation Amplifying the COVID-19 “infodemic”

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahin Nazar ◽  
Toine Pieters
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Engineering ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Social Experiments ◽  
Scientific Experts ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Containment Measures ◽  
Social Media Platforms

During the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a 26-min documentary entitled Plandemic was released online and fanatically shared via Twitter and other major social media platforms. The producers of the documentary sought to spread misinformation and conspiracy theories and to discredit scientific experts using a sophisticated disinformation campaign. They set out to accomplish this by coaching citizens toward activism to maximize the speed at which the documentary propagated and decrease positive sentiments toward public health interventions. Applying techniques from social network analysis in conjunction with a formative content analysis of Twitter data, we examined the effectiveness of the Plandemic disinformation campaign as a case study of social engineering during the COVID-19 pandemic. By comparing the Twitter network's community structure and communication patterns before and after the release of the film, we demonstrate the Plandemic campaign to have been effective for two reasons. First, the campaign established a decentralized information sharing network on Twitter by coaching low-reach social media users to mass share the documentary, effectively subverting efforts to gatekeep its misinformation. Second, the campaign amplified negative sentiments regarding vaccination and containment measures among conspiracy theorists. These effects possibly have an indirect impact on the public's willingness to comply with public health measures. Our results show the necessity of further research about sophisticated social experiments such as the Plandemic disinformation campaign and provide important insights for policy-making to combat the spread of health misinformation during public health crises.

scholarly journals Conspiracy Theory as a Working Method of Political Propaganda

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Štefan Ižák
Keyword(s):  
Text Analysis ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Political Propaganda ◽  
Research Material ◽  
Working Method ◽  
Research Show ◽  
Discursive Patterns

The paper Conspiracy theory as a working method of political propaganda deals with using of conspiracy theories by the specific (pro-Kremlin) kind of propaganda to spread certain ideological content. In the paper, the conspiracy theory The European Union organizes migration to Islamize Europe is analyzed. In the paper the internal logic of this conspiracy theory is revealed. The main objective of the paper is to analyze the argumentation strategies of this conspiracy theory and find out what kind of binarities analyzed conspiracy theory uses to legitimize its construction of reality. For the text analysis, a discourse analysis is chosen. This method allows me to analyze key discursive patterns characteristic for the set of collected news. The empirical part composed by the analysis of the research material follows the theoretical part of the paper, where the concept of conspiracy theory as the type of the discursive construction of reality and as a part of the political propaganda is presented. Results of research show that analyzed conspiracy theory disseminates concrete ideological views in favor of Eurosceptical, populist forces.

Deformation Replication

1970 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 280-281
Author(s):  
J. Temple Black
Keyword(s):  
Cutting Speed ◽  
Machining Process ◽  
Depth Of Cut ◽  
Rake Face ◽  
Orthogonal Machining ◽  
Aluminum Chips ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Glass Knife ◽  
Very High

Tool materials used in ultramicrotomy are glass, developed by Latta and Hartmann (1) and diamond, introduced by Fernandez-Moran (2). While diamonds produce more good sections per knife edge than glass, they are expensive; require careful mounting and handling; and are time consuming to clean before and after usage, purchase from vendors (3-6 months waiting time), and regrind. Glass offers an easily accessible, inexpensive material ($0.04 per knife) with very high compressive strength (3) that can be employed in microtomy of metals (4) as well as biological materials. When the orthogonal machining process is being studied, glass offers additional advantages. Sections of metal or plastic can be dried down on the rake face, coated with Au-Pd, and examined directly in the SEM with no additional handling (5). Figure 1 shows aluminum chips microtomed with a 75° glass knife at a cutting speed of 1 mm/sec with a depth of cut of 1000 Å lying on the rake face of the knife.

The Clinical, Roentgenological and Morphological Effects of an Acute Exposure of Phosgene on the Lungs of Dogs

1971 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 236-237
Author(s):  
R. F. Bils ◽  
W. F. Diller ◽  
F. Huth
Keyword(s):  
Latent Period ◽  
Chemical Industry ◽  
Toxic Substance ◽  
Lung Edema ◽  
X Rays ◽  
Beagle Dogs ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Morphological Alterations ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Electron Microscopes

Phosgene still plays an important role as a toxic substance in the chemical industry. Thiess (1968) recently reported observations on numerous cases of phosgene poisoning. A serious difficulty in the clinical handling of phosgene poisoning cases is a relatively long latent period, up to 12 hours, with no obvious signs of severity. At about 12 hours heavy lung edema appears suddenly, however changes can be seen in routine X-rays taken after only a few hours' exposure (Diller et al., 1969). This study was undertaken to correlate these early changes seen by the roengenologist with morphological alterations in the lungs seen in the'light and electron microscopes.Forty-two adult male and female Beagle dogs were selected for these exposure experiments. Treated animals were exposed to 94.5-107-5 ppm phosgene for 10 min. in a 15 m3 chamber. Roentgenograms were made of the thorax of each animal before and after exposure, up to 24 hrs.

Ultrastructure of Melanin Formation in Curvularia sp., Alternaria sp., and Drechslera Sorokiniana

1977 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 398-399
Author(s):  
M. H. Wheeler ◽  
W. J. Tolmsoff ◽  
A. A. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Potassium Phosphate ◽  
Thielaviopsis Basicola ◽  
Wild Type ◽  
Potassium Phosphate Buffer ◽  
Transmission Microscopy ◽  
Electron Transmission ◽  
Melanin Formation ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Alternaria Sp ◽  
Electron Transmission Microscopy

(+)-Scytalone [3,4-dihydro-3,6,8-trihydroxy-l-(2Hj-naphthalenone] and 1,8-di- hydroxynaphthalene (DHN) have been proposed as intermediates of melanin synthesis in the fungi Verticillium dahliae (1, 2, 3, 4) and Thielaviopsis basicola (4, 5). Scytalone is enzymatically dehydrated by V. dahliae to 1,3,8-trihydroxynaphthalene which is then reduced to (-)-vermelone [(-)-3,4- dihydro-3,8-dihydroxy-1(2H)-naphthalenone]. Vermelone is subsequently dehydrated to DHN which is enzymatically polymerized to melanin.Melanin formation in Curvularia sp., Alternaria sp., and Drechslera soro- kiniana was examined by light and electron-transmission microscopy. Wild-type isolates of each fungus were compared with albino mutants before and after treatment with 1 mM scytalone or 0.1 mM DHN in 50 mM potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.0. Both chemicals were converted to dark pigments in the walls of hyphae and conidia of the albino mutants. The darkened cells were similar in appearance to corresponding cells of the wild types under the light microscope.

Evaluation of Freezing Methods by Low Temperature X-Ray Diffraction

1977 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 330-333
Author(s):  
T. Gulik-Krzywicki ◽  
M.J. Costello
Keyword(s):  
Biological Materials ◽  
Molecular Organization ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
Glass Capillary ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Rate Dependent ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Freeze Etching ◽  
Diffraction Patterns ◽  
Set Up

Freeze-etching electron microscopy is currently one of the best methods for studying molecular organization of biological materials. Its application, however, is still limited by our imprecise knowledge about the perturbations of the original organization which may occur during quenching and fracturing of the samples and during the replication of fractured surfaces. Although it is well known that the preservation of the molecular organization of biological materials is critically dependent on the rate of freezing of the samples, little information is presently available concerning the nature and the extent of freezing-rate dependent perturbations of the original organizations. In order to obtain this information, we have developed a method based on the comparison of x-ray diffraction patterns of samples before and after freezing, prior to fracturing and replication.Our experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 1. The sample to be quenched is placed on its holder which is then mounted on a small metal holder (O) fixed on a glass capillary (p), whose position is controlled by a micromanipulator.

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