Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2026
Abstract
Authoritarian leaders frequently deploy conspiracy narratives to justify power concentration and delegitimize opponents, yet the link between authoritarianism and conspiracism remains underresearched. Integrating data across six studies from multiple international surveys (N=63,403; 20 countries), expert-coded party systems (71 countries; 14 datasets), and longitudinal panel studies, we demonstrate that individuals with stronger authoritarian orientations are consistently more prone to conspiracism across diverse cultures, political contexts, and time. These results remain robust when controlling for populist attitudes and multiple political, psychological, and demographic variables. The link between authoritarianism and conspiracism appears to constitute a durable and generalizable psychological relationship. This may help explain why conspiratorial narratives and authoritarian politics so often co-occur, with important implications for democratic resilience in an era of rising institutional distrust, anti-scientific attitudes, misinformation, and post-truth politics.
Recommended Citation
Capraro, V., Panizza, F., Vitriol, J. A., Biddlestone, M., Krouwel, A., Kutiyski, Y., López Ortega, A., Ebert, A., Wan, M., Hagemann, J. M. L., Hetche, S., Kaiser, A., Kujal, P., Douglas, K. M., Federico, C. M., Jetten, J., Van Der Linden, S., & Azevedo, F. (2026). Authoritarianism and conspiracism around the world. ESI Working Paper 26-03. https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/esi_working_papers/434/
Comments
ESI Working Paper 26-03