From Conspiracy Orientation to Conspiracy Attribution: The Effects of Institutional Trust and Demographic Differences

The current post-truth era is characterized by the rapid spread of conspiracy theories which has been exacerbated by public’s lack of agreement on objective facts and presentation of unverified information without supportive evidence. Existing research has examined a myriad of factors which explain...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) Vol. 68; no. 10; pp. 1395 - 1411
Main Authors Tam, Lisa, Lee, Hyelim
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2024
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Attribution
Conspiracy
Demography
Education
Effects
Gender roles
Mathematics
Political ideologies
Science and technology
STEM education
Theory
Trust
Truth
conspiracy orientation
institutional trust
STEM education
conspiracy attribution
conspiratorial thinking
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Summary:The current post-truth era is characterized by the rapid spread of conspiracy theories which has been exacerbated by public’s lack of agreement on objective facts and presentation of unverified information without supportive evidence. Existing research has examined a myriad of factors which explain the causes of conspiratorial thinking. To extend current research, this study examines the effects of institutional trust and demographic factors (i.e., age, gender, political ideology, household income and education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM]) in explaining conspiracy orientation (i.e., the dispositional tendency to subscribe to different conspiracy theories) and conspiracy attribution (i.e., the situational tendency to subscribe to conspiracy theories about specific problematic situations). A survey dataset (N = 720) was collected in South Korea. The findings showed that institutional trust had greater effects than STEM education in explaining conspiracy orientation and attribution. On the other hand, different demographic factors had different effects on conspiracy orientation and attribution.
ISSN:0002-7642
1552-3381
DOI:10.1177/00027642231174330