Conspiracy theory belief and education: A critical social analysis

Abstract

Research on conspiracy theories has revealed a significant association between conspiratorial thinking and education. The relationship is complex, however, and has so far been limited primarily to investigations of personal psychological attributes. This paper argues, instead, in favour of a broader social research perspective, specifically, one informed by a dialectical materialist philosophy. A secondary analysis of publicly available international data sourced from economic institutions and other organisations on conspiratorial belief, educational performance measures, unemployment, inequality and corruption perception was carried out. Conspiratorial belief was taken as a collective public epistemological phenomenon across countries, to explore the role of contemporary education systems across societies, and the degree to which they are successfully nurturing an effective form of critical thinking. A dialectical materialist philosophical approach was instrumental in formulating the study scope and interpreting the findings, given the use of countries as the fundamental unit of analysis. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between belief in conspiracy theories and education, taking into account social context using unemployment, inequality, and corruption as control variables. The findings showed that the relationship between conspiratorial thinking and education held at the societal level, and was mediated by additional social factors. The paper goes on to argue, by virtue of the nature of the mediators, that education systems generally tend to fall short of effective and socially-engaged forms of critical pedagogy.