Conspiracy and Misperception Belief in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

Misperceptions and conspiracy theories about foreign powers and religious and ethnic groups can inflame intergroup conflict and distort public opinion, especially in divided and contentious regions like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Why do people acquire and maintain these false or unsupported beliefs? This study reports the results of a novel survey experiment examining conspiracy beliefs in the MENA region. We find that belief in conspiracy theories about the West, Jews, and Israel is widespread and strongly associated with generalized anti-Western and anti-Jewish attitudes, especially among individuals with high political knowledge. However, both experimental and observational data indicate that these beliefs do not appear to be the result of feelings of powerlessness-our findings provide little support for the hypothesis that a lack of control makes people more vulnerable to conspiracy theories.

Understanding Conspiracy Theories

“…Furthermore, research demonstrates that conspiracy beliefs are correlated with alienation from the political system and anomie—a feeling of personal unrest and lack of understanding of the social world (e.g., Abalakina‐Paap et al, ; Bruder et al, ; Goertzel, ; but see Nyhan & Zeitzoff, ). Belief in conspiracy theories is also associated with a belief that the economy is getting worse (Parsons, Simmons, Shinhoster, & Kilburn, ).…”

“…Further, more work must examine how these scales translate across geographic context, particularly into closed societies where the conspiracy theories about government are likely to be more rational. The study of conspiracy theories is beginning to traverse geographic boundaries; for example, see works on Turkey (Nefes, ), Russia (Yablokov, ), Europe (Drochon, ), the Middle East (Nyhan & Zeitzoff, ; Siddiqui, in press), Latin America (Filer, ), and Thailand (Greenhill & Oppenheim, ). Studies should begin integrating these various findings to develop broader theories.…”

The Enemy of ‘Ummah: Belief in Jewish conspiracy theories indirectly affected vaccination decisions

“…What needs to be also considered is the weight of sheer evidence from previous research demonstrating how conspiracy belief acts as an anti-science narrative and that could lead to real danger in our daily lives (Douglas et al, 2019), such as raising doubt about vaccination (Jolley & Douglas, 2014), enticing prejudice towards minority groups (Imhoff & Lamberty, 2017;Jolley et al, 2019), reducing intention to adopt sustainable behaviours (Lewandowsky et al, 2013), decreasing political engagement (Jolley et al, 2018), and further, justifying violence (Jolley & Paterson, 2020). Additionally, prior research provides evidence that belief in Jewish conspiracies was, specifically, closely associated with generalised anti-Jewish and anti-Western attitudes (Nyhan & Zeitzoff, 2018), while negative stereotypes about these groups were also related to belief in conspiracy theories about terrorism (Mashuri & Zaduqisti, 2015) and could potentially lead to aggressive inclination towards both groups (Mashuri & Zaduqisti, 2019).…”

“…Jewish conspiracy theories are widespread in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia (Ainslie, 2019;Reid, 2010), and in others regions that are Muslim-majority, such as the Middle East and North Africa (Nyhan & Zeitzoff, 2018), although it is difficult to comprehend why Indonesian Muslims often point their fingers to the Jews-a minuscule religious group barely existent in the archipelago (Franke, 2013). From a historical standpoint, there is some speculation about the origins of such wishful thinking.…”

Does Perceived Lack of Control Lead to Conspiracy Theory Beliefs? Findings from an online MTurk sample

“…[ 34 ]), and yet others (e.g. [ 35 , 36 ]) report no effects of control on conspiracy beliefs at all.…”