Populist attitudes and conspiracy beliefs: Exploring the relation between the latent structures of populist attitudes and conspiracy beliefs

IF 1.8 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Journal of Social and Political Psychology Pub Date : 2022-04-26 DOI:10.5964/jspp.7969

C. Christner

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Despite the alleged affinity between populism and conspiracy theories, how they relate on the individual level remains relatively unknown. This study explores the relation between populist attitudes and conspiracy beliefs at the individual level. First, I test whether the conspiracist facets, which directly involve governmental participation, are associated with the dimensions of populist attitudes. Further, I examine the relation of political trust with the dimensions and facets of both constructs as well as their predictive power of the self-reported propensity to vote for a populist party. To test these assumptions, a cross-sectional study was conducted in Germany. Confirmatory factor analyses indicate a strong association between conspiracist facets that directly involve governmental participation and the anti-elitism and sovereignty dimensions of populist attitudes. Findings further show that low political trust is related to all dimensions of populist attitudes–especially anti-elitism–and to the conspiracist facets. Furthermore, the sovereignty dimension of populist attitudes and low political trust predict the propensity to vote for the right-wing populist party AfD. These findings provide new insights to a more nuanced understanding of populism on the individual level and the relation to conspiracy beliefs.

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民粹主义态度与阴谋信念:探讨民粹主义态度的潜在结构与阴谋信念之间的关系

尽管民粹主义和阴谋论之间有着所谓的密切关系，但它们在个人层面上的关系仍然相对未知。本研究探讨了民粹主义态度与个人层面的阴谋信念之间的关系。首先，我测试了直接涉及政府参与的阴谋论方面是否与民粹主义态度的维度有关。此外，我研究了政治信任与这两种结构的维度和方面的关系，以及他们自我报告的投票给民粹主义政党的倾向的预测力。为了验证这些假设，在德国进行了一项横断面研究。验证性因素分析表明，直接涉及政府参与的阴谋论方面与民粹主义态度的反精英主义和主权层面之间存在着强烈的联系。研究结果进一步表明，政治信任度低与民粹主义态度的各个方面——尤其是反精英主义——以及阴谋论方面有关。此外，民粹主义态度的主权维度和低政治信任度预测了投票给右翼民粹主义政党AfD的倾向。这些发现为在个人层面上更细致地理解民粹主义以及与阴谋信念的关系提供了新的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Social and Political Psychology Social Sciences-Sociology and Political Science

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

4.80%

发文量

审稿时长

40 weeks

期刊介绍： The Journal of Social and Political Psychology (JSPP) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal (without author fees), published online. It publishes articles at the intersection of social and political psychology that substantially advance the understanding of social problems, their reduction, and the promotion of social justice. It also welcomes work that focuses on socio-political issues from related fields of psychology (e.g., peace psychology, community psychology, cultural psychology, environmental psychology, media psychology, economic psychology) and encourages submissions with interdisciplinary perspectives. JSPP is comprehensive and integrative in its approach. It publishes high-quality work from different epistemological, methodological, theoretical, and cultural perspectives and from different regions across the globe. It provides a forum for innovation, questioning of assumptions, and controversy and debate. JSPP aims to give creative impetuses for academic scholarship and for applications in education, policymaking, professional practice, and advocacy and social action. It intends to transcend the methodological and meta-theoretical divisions and paradigm clashes that characterize the field of social and political psychology, and to counterbalance the current overreliance on the hypothetico-deductive model of science, quantitative methodology, and individualistic explanations by also publishing work following alternative traditions (e.g., qualitative and mixed-methods research, participatory action research, critical psychology, social representations, narrative, and discursive approaches). Because it is published online, JSPP can avoid a bias against research that requires more space to be presented adequately.