There are higher levels of conspiracy beliefs in more corrupt countries

Abstract

Data for Study 1 is accessible at https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/msvke1lg9d/Globalism2020 Guardian Conspiracy Theories.pdf Data for Study 2 is accessible at https://osf.io/qzxv9/?view_only=852910a2c08c42018edf84a0b556aa14 Data for Study 3 is accessible at https://osf.io/y7ckt/ The corresponding author of Rutjens et al., 2021 should be contacted for the data used in Study 4.Online supplementary material, codebook (data dictionary) and analysis codes are available at https://osf.io/bctkd/files/?view_only=e208d813d5264a5ba9c7e1f5e28154abThe current study is based on secondary analyses of previously published datasets and thus an ethical permission was not required. Similarly, no informed consent was required.I have no conflict of interest to declare. I thank Joel Rogers de Waal, Matthew Hornsey, and Bastiaan Rutjens for providing access to the datasets used in the current study. I thank Serkan Dolma for his feedbacks on the methodology. I thank Büşra Elif Yelbuz for her help with data curation.

The positive association of education with the trust in science and scientists is weaker in highly corrupt countries

“…This novel finding is worth discussing in more detail: why does corruption weaken the relationship between education and trust in science and scientists? Perhaps recent work assessing the role of corruption within the conspiracy beliefs literature (Alper, 2022; Alper and Imhoff, 2022; Alper et al, 2021) may provide important insights into this question. In three large-scale cross-cultural samples, Alper (2022) found that the negative relationship between education and conspiracy beliefs was moderated by country-level corruption, such that this relationship only emerged in low-corruption countries.…”

“…In other words, the protective role of education against conspiracy beliefs emerged in countries with low corruption, but not in countries with high corruption. A plausible explanation for this is that in highly corrupt countries, individuals’ expectations of secretive alliances are considerably more credible, compared to countries with low corruption, as “real conspiracies” (such as bribery and censorship) often do happen in such contexts (Alper, 2022; Alper and Imhoff, 2022; Alper et al, 2021). Thus, even highly educated individuals may find certain conspiracy theories probable, which makes education status less effective in predicting people’s conspiracy beliefs (Alper, 2022).…”

“…A plausible explanation for this is that in highly corrupt countries, individuals’ expectations of secretive alliances are considerably more credible, compared to countries with low corruption, as “real conspiracies” (such as bribery and censorship) often do happen in such contexts (Alper, 2022; Alper and Imhoff, 2022; Alper et al, 2021). Thus, even highly educated individuals may find certain conspiracy theories probable, which makes education status less effective in predicting people’s conspiracy beliefs (Alper, 2022). Likewise, in more corrupt countries, mistrust in science and scientists may not be as unreasonable as it may seem at first glance.…”

“…If the expectation of dishonesty is not ungrounded, then an increase in education would not be strongly related to an increase in trust in science and scientists since one would have good enough reasons not to trust in such contexts. Past research showed that country-level corruption is a significant factor in predicting conspiracy beliefs (Alper, 2022; Alper and Imhoff, 2022; Alper et al, 2021), and the negative association between education and conspiracy beliefs is weaker in high-corruption countries because conspiracy beliefs are relatively more plausible in these contexts (Alper, 2022). In this research, we similarly argue that the association of education with trust in science and scientists would be weaker in countries with high corruption.…”

Insight in the conspiracist’s mind

“…However, in recent years the calls to shift away from a sole focus on the errors have grown louder (Alper, 2022;Alper & Imhoff, 2022;Harambam & Aupers, 2015;Hornsey et al, 2022). There is an increasing realization that this focus is both a nonstarter when trying to reconnect conspiracists to society and a simplification of the conspiracist's actual psychology.…”