Anti-immigration conspiracy beliefs are associated with endorsement of conventional and violent actions opposing immigration and attitudes towards democracy across 21 countries

Despite widespread speculation that conspiracy beliefs foster anti-democratic outcomes, the empirical picture is inconsistent. To clarify this literature, we examine the relationships that conspiracy beliefs have with commitment to reactionary action and criticism of democracy, focusing on a global...

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Published in:Communications psychology Vol. 3; no. 1; pp. 66 - 12
Main Authors: Thomas, Emma F., Stothard, Christina, Besta, Tomasz, Akbas, Gulcin, Becker, Julia C., Becker, Maja, Brik, Tymofii, Chayinska, Maria, Deguchi, Makiko, Dhakal, Sandesh, Kelmendi, Kaltrina, Kende, Anna, de Lemus, Soledad, Le Dornat, Paul, Iwanowska, Magdalena, Leung, Angela, Martiny, Sarah, Mizuki, Rie, Osborne, Danny, Palace, Marek, Pozzi, Maura, Pistoni, Carlo, Raja Reza Shah, Raja Intan Arifah Binti, Raut, Pravash Kumar, Safdar, Saba, Stroebe, Katherine, Sulejmanović, Dijana, Tee, Eugene Y. J., Ton, Gonneke, Ulug, Ozden Melis, Urbiola, Ana, Weber, Nathan, Włodarczyk, Anna, van Zomeren, Martijn
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.04.2025
Nature Publishing Group
Springer Nature
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
4014/477
4014/477/2811
Attitudes
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Cognitive science
Collective action
Conspiracy
Democracy
Demonstrations & protests
GDP
Gross Domestic Product
Health Sciences
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hypotheses
Immigrants
Immigration policy
Medicine
multidisciplinary
Neurosciences
Politics
Psychiatry
Psychology
Psychometrics
Science
Society
Statistics for Life Sciences
ISSN:2731-9121, 2731-9121
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Despite widespread speculation that conspiracy beliefs foster anti-democratic outcomes, the empirical picture is inconsistent. To clarify this literature, we examine the relationships that conspiracy beliefs have with commitment to reactionary action and criticism of democracy, focusing on a global issue: immigration. We expected that people who believe that their government uses immigration to diversify the population against citizens’ wishes (anti-migration conspiracy beliefs) would be more committed to conventional and violent action to oppose immigration, and more critical of democracy. However, societal-level factors – economic performance and democratic functioning – were expected to influence (strengthen, weaken) these links. As hypothesized, multi-level analyses ( N  = 4353) from 21 countries revealed that economic prosperity attenuated the positive link between anti-migration conspiracy beliefs and commitment to reactionary action. Paradoxically, more democratic societies evidenced stronger links between conspiracy beliefs and conventional (but not violent) action to oppose immigration. Thus, more democratic societies appear to invite conventional forms of action to oppose immigration which may, in turn, weaken democratic norms of inclusion. Results highlight the interplay of individual- and societal-level factors underlying illiberal movements. The link between conspiracy beliefs and reactionary movements that promote intolerance and undermine democracy was investigated in 21 countries. Economic prosperity and democratic functioning moderated the positive link between anti-migration conspiracy beliefs and commitment to reactionary action.
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ISSN:2731-9121
2731-9121
DOI:10.1038/s44271-025-00246-1