The Collective Conspiracy Mentality in Poland

Soral, Wiktor; Cichocka, Aleksandra; Bilewicz, Michał; Marchlewska, Marta

doi:10.1093/oso/9780190844073.003.0025

Cited by 14 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Overall, in the present study participants ascribed the highest conspiracy intentions to Russians, then to Germans and the lowest to Jews (as shown by the main effects of the target). This is probably because of salient issues in the current political debate, such as the Smoleńsk aircraft catastrophe, which formed the basis for theories on Russian conspiracy, and the migration crisis, which led to the emergence of anti-German conspiracy theories (Soral, Cichocka, Bilewicz, & Marchlewska, 2018). This was a clear difference between this study and the two previous studies performed several years earlier (see Imhoff & Messer, 2018 for arguments about the role of historical context in the effects obtained in experimental studies in social psychology).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What breeds conspiracy antisemitism? The role of political uncontrollability and uncertainty in the belief in Jewish conspiracy.

Kofta¹,

Soral²,

Bilewicz³

2020

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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106

102

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Belief in conspiracy theories about Jews is a prototypical example of how a naïve theory can serve as a universal explanation of "all the bad things happening in society." Such a theory often arises in times of political unrest that tend to breed feelings of uncertainty in politics and a lack of control over politics. As both uncertainty (a sense-making deficit) and lack of control (an agency deficit) can relate to conspiracy-based antisemitism, this research examines which of the two processes plays a pivotal role in the belief in Jewish conspiracy. Specifically, we hypothesize that political uncontrollability, rather than political uncertainty, is a critical factor in triggering conspiracy theories about groups. In Study 1 (N ϭ 812) we found that lack of control, but not uncertainty, in the political domain predicted belief in Jewish conspiracy, and subsequently led to increased discriminatory attitudes toward Jews. The results of longitudinal Study 2 (N ϭ 476) revealed that only political uncontrollability led to an increase in conspiracy-related stereotypes of Jews. In Study 3 (N ϭ 172) we found that experimental induction of political uncontrollability increased belief in Jewish, German, and Russian conspiracy, whereas induction of political uncertainty did not. Finally, Study 4 (N ϭ 370) replicated this pattern in another cultural context with more general measures of uncontrollability and uncertainty. It was lack of personal control, rather than uncertainty, that increased belief in Jewish conspiracy-and indirectly predicted other conspiracy theories. Our findings consistently support the critical role of political uncontrollability, not uncertainty, in triggering a conspiracy theory of Jews.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What breeds conspiracy antisemitism? The role of political uncontrollability and uncertainty in the belief in Jewish conspiracy.

Kofta¹,

Soral²,

Bilewicz³

2020

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Self Cite

106

102

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The concept of collective conspiracy mentality might also be relevant here. This collective state has been conceptualized and fueled by historical victimhood, leading to a perpetual adaptative state of hypervigilance (Soral et al, 2018; see also Bilewicz & Liu, 2020). Even though we investigated contextual competitive victimhood, rather than historical victimhood, our findings could be interpreted as the expression of a national conspiracy mentality which still perceives the Zika outbreak as posing a potential threat years after its epidemic peak.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Affected more than infected: The relationship between national narcissism and Zika conspiracy beliefs is mediated by exclusive victimhood about the Zika outbreak

Bertin

Delouvée

2021

Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology

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Many conspiracy theories appeared along with the Zika outbreak. While the virus is still circulating, motives underlying Zika conspiracy beliefs remain underexplored. National narcissism has been shown to be a robust social motive predicting conspiracy beliefs about other public health crises. This relationship has been interpreted as conspiracy beliefs protecting one's idealistic national image from the crisis by externally attributing any potential threatening factors. We seek to provide an additional account by proposing that such external projection of grievances is rooted in the ethnocentric tendency to frame one's nation's suffering as central to the crisis. We argue that this inflated perception of victimhood, which we operationalized through exclusive victimhood, legitimizes national narcissists’ expression of their (conspiracy) view of the crisis, hence managing their identity. Based on a representative sample of the French population ( N = 1,104), results confirmed that national narcissism was related to Zika conspiracy beliefs, and that this relationship was mediated by the belief that French people suffered uniquely and more than others from the Zika outbreak. These results held even when controlling for potential confounding variables. We discuss the possible functions of exclusive victimhood in times of global threats, and the defensive role played by conspiracy beliefs.

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“…Golec de Zavala and Federico () found that American collective narcissism predicted conspiracy theorizing during the 2016 US presidential campaign. Also, Cichocka, Marchlewska, Golec de Zavala, and Olechowski () demonstrated that national collective narcissism in Poland was associated with the endorsement of conspiracy theories about Russian involvement in the Smolensk crash of 2010 in which the Polish president and several officials died (see also Soral, Cichocka, Bilewicz, & Marchlewska, ). However, mere identification with the national group without the narcissistic component predicted lower likelihood of endorsing these conspiracy theories.…”

Section: Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Conspiracy Theories

Douglas

Uscinski

Sutton

et al. 2019

Political Psychology

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783

814

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Scholarly efforts to understand conspiracy theories have grown significantly in recent years, and there is now a broad and interdisciplinary literature. In reviewing this body of work, we ask three specific questions. First, what factors are associated with conspiracy beliefs? Our review of the literature shows that conspiracy beliefs result from a range of psychological, political, and social factors. Next, how are conspiracy theories communicated? Here, we explain how conspiracy theories are shared among individuals and spread through traditional and social media platforms. Next, what are the societal risks and rewards associated with conspiracy theories? By focusing on politics and science, we argue that conspiracy theories do more harm than good. We conclude by suggesting several promising avenues for future research.

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The Collective Conspiracy Mentality in Poland

Cited by 14 publications

References 11 publications

What breeds conspiracy antisemitism? The role of political uncontrollability and uncertainty in the belief in Jewish conspiracy.

What breeds conspiracy antisemitism? The role of political uncontrollability and uncertainty in the belief in Jewish conspiracy.

Affected more than infected: The relationship between national narcissism and Zika conspiracy beliefs is mediated by exclusive victimhood about the Zika outbreak

Understanding Conspiracy Theories

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