Belief in Conspiracy Theories May Not Be Increasing After All, Surveys Suggest



Consider the JFK assassination or the lengthy history of UFO sightings to see that conspiracy theories are hardly a new ailment. However, the internet is sometimes credited for ushering in a "post-truth" era, with social media in particular facilitating the spread of rumors that become viral.

Whether or if something is genuinely true is a different issue, one that is important and warrants thought.

Despite what many journalists, academics, and politicians claim, there isn't much concrete proof to date that conspiracy theories are becoming more and more common.

A recent set of polls that were done in the United States and six European nations came to that result. Contrary to popular belief, the new study contends that conspiracy theories are a "more durable and universal element of human civilization."

It's not all terrible news, either. The good news is that it doesn't appear that online news sources or social media are directly responsible. It seems conspiracy theories are not necessarily drawing more adherents than they did in the past, despite the fact that they may transmit dangerously false information.

Researchers found no indication of rising confidence in conspiracy theories in the modern era when they analyzed national polls on both recent and historical conspiracy ideas.

According to political scientist Adam Enders of the University of Louisville, "we do not find that conspiracism has risen over time, despite popular predictions that America is falling into the conspiracy theory rabbit hole into a condition of post-truth."

"We examine beliefs in dozens of particular conspiracy theories, perceptions of who is likely to be involved in conspiracy theories, and the general propensity to interpret events and circumstances as the result of conspiracy theories - in no case do we observe an average increase in conspiracy beliefs," the study states.

The first series of polls contrasted Americans' perceptions of conspiracy theories that had been for less than a year, like those surrounding COVID-19, with those that had existed for longer, like those around the Pearl Harbor assault.
Researchers looked for evidence of rising beliefs in five COVID-19 conspiracies but found none in surveys conducted in March 2020, June of that year, and May 2021.

In actuality, a number of these COVID-19 conspiracies lost favor over time, such as the theory that Bill Gates is responsible for the worldwide epidemic.

Another contemporary conspiracy hypothesis investigated by academics is QAnon. In the US, 5% of respondents in August 2019 stated they were QAnon believers.

Though it might seem modest, researchers found that up to 50% of Americans believed in QAnon conspiracy theories, such as the idea of a "deep state" or elite sex traffickers, when they answered less direct questions.

Interestingly, despite the worldwide epidemic and the 2020 US election season, these opinions mostly remained the same.

Although the baseline levels of confidence in these theories are worrying on a normative level, the authors state that they have never seen evidence of significant long-term rises.
Only seven of the 46 conspiracy theories reviewed by researchers saw a rise in acceptance in the US over time, and none of them contained QAnon or COVID-19.

The results imply that despite the internet serving as a megaphone for false information, "newer" conspiracy theories are not drawing more followers than they did in the past.

Surveys performed in the US between 2016 and 2018 indicated no indication of a rise in conspiracy theories, such as alien cover-ups, when compared to surveys from Europe.

These results support the current study's conclusion that the internet is "less conducive to conspiracy theories than is generally imagined," which is in line with findings from other recent research.

According to the new study's authors, "our findings also comport with studies demonstrating that online conspiracy theories, "infodemics," and echo chambers may not be as pervasive or powerful as sometimes claimed, and are reflective of studies arguing that people are not engaging with or sharing conspiracy theories online as much as sometimes assumed."

The findings instead point to a false perception that conspiracy theories are growing more prevalent as a result of greater public knowledge of them. In actuality, the acceptance of these ideas over time remained mostly stable.

If so, the notion of a "post-truth" world has to be reexamined. Fighting disinformation is crucial for democracy and for the general welfare, but there isn't much we can do to influence public opinion until we understand where this bogus news comes from and how it persuades people.

Although placing the blame on social media may seem reasonable, this argument is as unsupported by facts as any conspiracy theory.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do You Sleep on Your Back or Side? Here's The Research on 'Optimal' Sleep Positions

Image
William Dement, a renowned sleep researcher at Stanford University, is quoted as saying that after 50 years of study, the only reason he can think of for why we sleep is "because we become sleepy." Sleep certainly matters for our health and wellbeing even though it may be, as one researcher put it, "the sole major habit in quest of a function." Do we, however, have it right? What do studies on sleeping positions say? Is there a proper sleeping position? The majority of people favor sleeping on their side. This is encouraging news because people who sleep on their backs are more likely to have trouble falling asleep or breathing during the night. Most of the time, we have a tendency to shift around quite a bit at night. According to a study involving 664 sleepers, on average, participants slept on their side 54% of the time, their back 37% of the time, and their front 7% of the time. Males are more likely to change positions throughout the night and move their arms, ...
Read more

A Briefcase-Sized Box Is Already Making Oxygen on Mars

Image
Currently, the Martian atmosphere is in no way hospitable to Earthlings. It is formed primarily of carbon dioxide and is over 100 times less dense than Earth's atmosphere. It would soon stop breathing completely for any individuals who tried to breathe in it. A modest device, about the size of a suitcase, has been consistently extracting breathable oxygen from the Martian atmosphere on that sandy, arid, alien world. In order to manufacture breathing air for a human expedition to the red planet, it is the first demonstration of the processing of in situ resources for human use on another world. Its name is MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Experiment), and it is a device that utilizes electrolysis to separate Martian carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen. It is mounted inside NASA's Perseverance rover. According to the researchers, MOXIE produced oxygen seven times as much between February 2021, when Perseverance arrived, until the end of 2021. Acco...
Read more

New DNA Research Unlocks Secrets of Native Rodents’ Rat Race to New Lands

Image
More than 150 different native rodent species from Australia, New Guinea, and Melanesian islands have had their DNA sequenced in recent studies. It provides a fuller understanding of their connections and the circumstances surrounding their expansion throughout the Pacific. The Australian National University's (ANU) Dr. Emily Roycroft, the study's lead author, said native rodents are an interesting but frequently underappreciated evolutionary group. Dr. Roycroft noted that over 150 species in Australia and New Guinea are unique to those regions and include the rakali, sometimes known as the "water rat," which is frequently spotted swimming in the lakes near Canberra. We now know relatively little about the history and development of native rodents, particularly those found in New Guinea. In order to obtain DNA from museum specimens up to 180 years old, including several extinct and secretive species, the study team developed a novel technique. "One Guadalcanal ra...
Read more