Why do People believe in Conspiracy Theories? Conspiracies and Misconceptions in Times of Pandemic.
The climate change debate proved that a threat to humanity’s existence and well-being does not make people disregard conspiracy theories and hoaxes. The extensive amount of evidence provided by most scientific communities supports that climate change is real and a threat to human existence. Despite those overwhelming pieces of evidence, over a third of Americans do not support the science community. Moreover, the President of the U.S.’s recent actions, like withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, means that sometimes even world leaders can be influenced by conspiracy theories and misconceptions (Douglas, Sutton, & Cichocka, 2017). While climate change is a serious issue, some people might not understand the importance of the situation because the threat is not immediate, and the changes are happening gradually. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic affected the American society and international community immediately by putting a halt to the economy and bringing chaos to social and healthcare systems worldwide. As no community in the world was left unaffected, some might think that the proximity of the crisis and the virus’s fast spread might minimize the misconceptions and conspiracy theory flow. Unfortunately, conspiracy theories and misconceptions continue to grow despite the continuing evidence of the dangers of the disease. While most of the time, the effect from conspiracies is limited, the result of the conspiracies surrounding COVID — 19, when people refuse to wear masks,
ignore social distancing rules, caused a very real consequence: recent spikes in the infection rate and possibly more death. So why would people believe something that potentially can harm them? Partisanship, media misinformation, and personal characteristic of social groups can be one of many reasons that can explain why people have misconceptions and believe conspiracies in time of imminent threat to public health.
The media’s misinformation and disinformation are some of the outside factors that can lead to more misconceptions about the pandemic. Recent research of misinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic argues that the pandemic is followed by the “infodemic,” a global spread of misinformation that poses a severe threat to public health (Bridgman et al., 2020). Heightened discussion of conspiracy theories in the media increases the conspiratorial beliefs. People with low knowledge about the problem tend to believe conspiracy theories more than those who have some knowledge about the issue (Uscinski et al., 2020). Therefore, even the mere mentioning of untrue information or conspiracy theory in the news might contribute to public misconceptions with low levels of knowledge. COVID -19 is an unknown virus, which makes it an auspicious condition for misconceptions. Social media platforms broadly contribute to misperceptions about the pandemic, as there is a strong relationship between social media exposure and misperceptions about hygiene and social distancing (Bridgman et al., 2020). Due to the nature of social networks, misinformation spreads faster than on traditional news sources. Debunking the misinformation and conspiracy theories, however, does not. Therefore, people who get most of their information from social networking are more likely to minimize the pandemic risks and less likely to adhere to scientific experts’ advice (Uscinski et al., 2020).
Simultaneously, it is unfair to say that everyone exposed to social media has misconceptions about the pandemic, as not all people have the same psychological predispositions. Therefore, it is not that some people are more susceptible than others.
Instead, people who usually mistrust scientists and what they perceive to be an elite will probably distrust them in this situation (Uscinski
Klofstad, & Atkinson, 2016). Miller, Saunders, and Farhart ( 2015) suggest that people with political knowledge and low trust levels are more likely to endorse conspiracy theories. Moreover, Conservatives are proved to be the ones who are more likely to be both more knowledgeable and distrustful. Therefore, the more persuaded by conspiracy theories. This finding is intriguing. It shows that conservatives who have low levels of knowledge of the issue are more susceptible — still, conservatives are interested in politics and can be victims of conspiracy theories.
But why conservatives are more susceptible to conspiracy thinking? Authoritarianism as a character trait (which means acceptance of authority) might be one factor that can explain this peculiarity. While some researchers, like Oliver and Wood (2014), claim that conspiracism is not a product of greater authoritarianism, ignorance, or political conservatism. Other researchers — Wood and Gray (2019) argue that all conspiracy theories should not be treated the same. They (2019) argued that while low authoritarians can support conspiracy theories, the conspiracy theories, supported by low authoritarian and high authoritarians, differ significantly in content. Right-wing authoritarians are more likely to support pro-establishment( pro-government) conspiracies than anti-establishment conspiracies. Pro-establishment theories promote dislike of the outgroup and propose a threat to existing social order and established power. These findings prove that both liberals and conservatives can believe the conspiracy theories. Still, while liberals will believe in anti-establishment theories, conservatives would more likely see the outside threat and support the government’s official position. The current pandemic proves these findings, as younger people and liberals believe what can be called anti-establishment conspiracy theories. Liberals believe that Bill Gates will profit from the pandemic and that the whole pandemic was caused by capitalism’s failure and current forms of governing. At the same time, they do
not doubt the pandemic’s seriousness
(Zitelmann, 2020). On the other hand, conservatives believe in conspiracies that promote pro-government positions, like believing that the virus was human-made in China, that face masks are unnecessary, and that liberal media exaggerate the threat to harm President Trump (Zitelmann, 2020).
Partisanship and political identity play an essential role in citizens’ conspiratorial thinking and misperception of specific issues. While facts presented to the public by official sources are rooted in scientific reasoning, it does not mean that people view this information in the same way. According to Parker — Stephen (2013), American party identifiers interpret the same fact differently. It might seem that people might be uneducated on the issue or just misinformed; in reality, partisans do not reject the facts they have at hand but rather disagree about policy conditions even though the evaluation is based on the same information (Parker-Stephen, 2013). Meaning that both Democrats and Republicans perceive the information about the COVID — 19 in the same way, but at the same time, the view on the severity of the issue, policies, and decisions might be very different. For example, 29 % of Americans agree that the threat of COVID-19 has been exaggerated to damage Trump (Uscinski et al., 2020). Both can understand the threat, but while Democrats stress the quarantine measures, Republicans might claim that economic drawbacks are more severe in the case of COVID — 19.
Partisanship also affects the conspiracy’s propensity when a conspiracy is related to one party (Uscinki, Klofstad, Atkinson, 2016). It is not the bare existence of COVID — 19 sparks conspiracy theories. It makes them popular even though there are plenty of conspiracies related to the origins of COVID -19, but the actions of parties responding to the pandemic. Moreover, the misconceptions of the other party might also play an important role in perceiving the crisis. As the research shows, people tend to overestimate which party supporters belong to a party group (Ahler & Sood, 2018) and overestimate the other party’s
reactions. Therefore, people see other groups’ actions, even though they might be a logical response as extreme. Wearing masks during the pandemic created an unexpected discourse of freedoms and rights, as some Republicans claimed that masks are the first step to taking away Americans’ freedom. This extreme view on public safety can be because Democratic leadership, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Candidate for President from Democratic Party Joe Biden, wear masks and promote this policy daily. At the same time, President Trump and many other Republicans make a point of not wearing a mask in public. Just like climate change, scientific advice during the pandemic was perceived by the Republicans as a Democrat — scientists’ conspiracy against masses and their freedoms
(Miller, Saunders, & Farhart, 2015). This polarization leads to further misconceptions and conspiracy theories, as partisans might believe that the other party is either exaggerating or underestimating the threat.
Conclusions and Implications
The support of different conspiracy theories varies. Some get more support; others are more obscure or too ridiculous for large groups of people to support them ( i.e., lizard people). Significant events in history and politics and significant issues lead to the appearance of conspiracy theories in some shape or form; the current pandemic is not an exception, as conspiracies surrounding the virus have followed it since day one. The novelty of the virus provides more opportunities for misinformation from media, forming the public’s misconceptions. Both liberals and conservatives are susceptible to conspiratory thinking due to lack of knowledge, political distrust, or level of pro-/anti- establishment sentiments. However, conservatives, who score high on the authoritarian scale, believe in pro-governmental, anti-elite (Democrats and scientists, rather than Republicans in power) conspiracy theories. At the same time, Liberals tend to support anti-establishment and anti-governmental theories.
Why should we care about conspiracy theories? People in the minority might overestimate the popularity of their opinion. Therefore, a false perception of safety and consensus is created within minority minds (Dvir- Gvirsman, 2015). It might seem that people who believe in conspiracy theories are a part of a small population of people. But could it be that people who do not believe in conspiracies are a minority? In reality, the researchers Oliver and Wood (2014) found that over half of Americans subscribe to at least one conspiracy theory, making it a pretty big group of people who distrust the official version of the events. While the support of conspiracy theories surrounding COVID — 19 ranges from 7 % to 30 %, it is still a decent number that will probably grow more with time (Zitelmann, 2020). However, misconceptions and conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic are more lethal for a larger population and can negatively influence people’s perception of the situation’s seriousness and scale.
