Department of Cognitive, Social and Organizational Psychology, Universidad de La Laguna, Spain.
Democracy Research Unit (DRU), Political Science, University of Salamanca, Spain.
Br J Soc Psychol. 2020 Apr;59(2):549-569. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12366. Epub 2020 Feb 20.
Recent approaches from social psychology lend support to conspiracy beliefs as a motivated form of social cognition, structured around and consistent with a higher-order belief system, which may have an impact on the way people understand their political environment and respond to it. Building on these accounts, this study examines the influence of conspiracism on political efficacy and, indirectly, on conventional and unconventional forms of political participation. Drawing on two-wave panel data collected in five democracies (United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Poland, and Estonia; n = 5,428), results suggest that individuals who hold conspiracy beliefs tend to regard the political system as less responsive to citizens' demands - external dimension of political efficacy. We also found a less clear and country-specific effect of conspiracy beliefs on perceptions of being less equipped to partake in the political process - internal efficacy. Furthermore, conspiratorial beliefs negatively affect conventional modes of political participation, indirectly through reduced external efficacy. We finally examine group differences by country that suggest that both individual- and contextual-level factors may explain the observed pattern of influences. Our results emphasize the potential of currently widespread conspiratorial narratives to undermine attitudes and behaviours that lie at the heart of the democratic process.
近年来，社会心理学的研究方法为阴谋论信念提供了支持，认为其是一种有动机的社会认知形式，围绕着更高层次的信仰体系构建，并与该体系保持一致，这可能会影响人们理解政治环境和对其做出反应的方式。基于这些观点，本研究考察了阴谋论对政治效能感的影响，以及对传统和非传统形式的政治参与的间接影响。本研究利用在五个民主国家（美国、日本、英国、波兰和爱沙尼亚）收集的两波面板数据（n=5428），结果表明，持有阴谋论信念的个体往往认为政治体系对公民的需求反应不灵敏——这是政治效能感的外部维度。我们还发现，阴谋论信念对感知自身参与政治进程的能力较低（内部效能感）的影响不太明确且具有国别差异。此外，阴谋信念通过降低外部效能感，对传统的政治参与模式产生负面影响。最后，我们根据国别考察了群体差异，表明个体和情境层面的因素都可能解释了所观察到的影响模式。我们的研究结果强调了当前广泛存在的阴谋论叙事可能破坏民主进程核心的态度和行为的潜在影响。
