People who experience greater hardship throughout their lives may become more susceptible to conspiracy theories when those experiences lead them to see the world as fundamentally unfair, according to new research.
Experts from the University of Nottingham's School of Psychology, working with the University of Cumbria, conducted three studies with over 1,200 participants. Across the studies, they found consistent evidence that perceptions of injustice help explain the relationship between lifetime adversity and conspiracy beliefs.
The findings, published in the British Journal of Psychology , suggest that it is not simply experiencing hardship that matters for endorsement of conspiracy beliefs, but how those experiences can shape people's broader beliefs about fairness and justice.
In the first study, researchers examined whether cumulative lifetime adversity, including experiences such as serious illness or injury, bereavement, financial difficulties, relationship breakdown and violence, was associated with conspiracy thinking. People who reported experiencing a greater number of adverse life events throughout their lives were more likely to perceive the world as unjust, and these perceptions were linked with stronger conspiracy beliefs.
The second study compared people who had experienced violent victimisation with those who had never been a victim of crime. Those who had experienced violent crime reported stronger perceptions of injustice, which in turn were associated with stronger conspiracy beliefs, even after accounting for influential demographic factors.
In the third study, researchers experimentally tested the role of perceived fairness. Participants who were led to think society was becoming more unfair subsequently reported stronger conspiracy beliefs than those led to think society was becoming fairer.
The study also found evidence of the wider implications for societal trust. Greater lifetime adversity was associated with stronger perceptions of injustice, which were linked to higher endorsement of political conspiracy beliefs and, in turn, lower trust in institutions.
Dr Daniel Jolley, lead author from the School of Psychology said: "Many people experience significant adversity during their lives, yet most do not become conspiracy believers. Our findings suggest it isn't hardship alone that matters, but how those experiences shape the way people see the world. When adversity leads people to feel that the world is fundamentally unfair, conspiracy theories may become more appealing because they offer an explanation for that injustice."
Dr Laura Blackie, co-author from the School of Psychology added: "Clinical psychologists have long documented the detrimental impact of acute trauma on individuals' worldviews. Our findings suggest that perceptions of unfairness in society might be one such detrimental outcome to result from adversity, and these perceptions may have consequences for the receptivity of conspiracy beliefs and trust in societal institutions. While our findings do not establish causality, they point to an important pathway through which adversity may shape how people view society".
The studies were funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Scheme and carried out in collaboration with the University of Cumbria.
