Who Believes in Conspiracy Theories? Network Diversity, Political Discussion, and Conservative Conspiracy Theories on Social Media

• Date: 01 September 2021
• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Author: Seong Jae Min
• DOI: 10.1177/1532673X211013526
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X211013526

American Politics Research

2021, Vol. 49(5) 415 –427

© The Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X211013526

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Article

Introduction

Conspiracy theories are a special breed of misinformation.

They are an attempt to explain the ultimate cause of a sig-

nificant political or social event as a secret plot by powerful

individuals or organizations (Douglas & Sutton, 2017). They

have a long history and are pervasive today across people of

different backgrounds and political attitudes in the United

States (Federico et al., 2018; Oliver & Wood, 2014; Uscinski

& Parent, 2014). Conspiracy theories present serious chal-

lenges to society as they distort public opinions and attack

the informational basis of democracy. Those who believe in

conspiracy theories are often associated with political disen-

gagement or extremism that can hurt a healthy functioning

of democracy (Butler et al., 1995). Conspiracy theories do

cause real harms, as shown in the case of the so-called “anti-

vaxxers” who refuse to vaccinate their children because of

their belief in the theory that vaccines cause autism (Jolley &

Douglas, 2014), or the conspiracy theory-influenced capital

rioters in Washington, D.C. in 2021 who violently stormed

into the democratic institutions intending to inflict harm on

representatives.

As we enter the age of networked social media, conspir-

acy theories are finding a new ill repute, because untrust-

worthy information gets more easily fermented and spread

across the vast digital network. One of the most scathing

charges against social media is that it traps individuals in an

ideological silo of like-minded people, or an “echo chamber”

(Sunstein, 2017). Research suggests that social media users

who are accustomed to such an online echo chamber subse-

quently become polarized when faced with an outgroup

audience (Shmargad & Klar, 2019), which serves as a fertile

ground where conspiracy theories can flourish. Indeed,

major conspiracy theories travel fast on social media, and

even fringe and decades-old conspiracy theories can be eas-

ily discovered and revived among those who share similar

ideological orientations.

Focusing on individuals’ social media network character-

istics, this study attempts to find a segment of social media

users susceptible to conspiracy theories. Previous studies

have emphasized partisan ideologies or personal traits as key

factors that motivate and sustain people’s misperception

(e.g., Barron et al., 2014; Nyhan & Reifler, 2010; Swami

et al., 2011). These studies, mostly conducted from a social

psychological perspective, have rarely considered the impor-

tance of communication networks. But probing the structures

of individual and structural communication networks has a

1013526APRXXX10.1177/1532673X211013526American Politics ResearchMin

research-article2021

1Pace University, New York, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Seong Jae Min, Pace University, 41 Park Row, 505, New York, NY 10038,

USA.

Email: smin@pace.edu

Who Believes in Conspiracy Theories?

Network Diversity, Political Discussion,

and Conservative Conspiracy Theories

on Social Media

Seong Jae Min1

Abstract

A survey of 3,441 U.S. social media users showed that a high portion believes in conspiracy theories, and their beliefs

vary widely along the party lines and socio-demographic factors. In particular, conservative conspiracy theories were more

pronounced than liberal ones, and older White males with high conservatism and Protestantism showed higher endorsement

of conservative conspiracy theories. Furthermore, ideological conservatives who frequently discuss politics showed higher

association with a conservative conspiracy theory than conservatives who discuss politics less frequently. However, network

diversity moderated the interaction of conservative ideology and political discussion such that conservatives who discuss

politics frequently in a relatively heterogeneous social media network setting had lower beliefs in a conspiracy theory than

conservatives who do so in a more homogeneous network.

Keywords

conspiracy theories, network diversity, political discussion, political ideology, social media, conservatism