Free from conspiracies: The negative relationship between societal freedom and belief in generic and content-specific conspiracy theories.

ABSTRACT: Through five studies, this research examined how objectively measured societal freedom and individual perceptions of it are related to reduced belief in conspiracy theories. Study 1 (N = 6353 participants from 36 countries) examined the negative relationship between societal freedom (as measured by the Human Freedom Index) and generic conspiracy beliefs. Study 2 (N = 44,458 participants from 52 countries) focused on interest group-related COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs- a measure not explicitly referring to government actors. Moving to the individual level, Study 3 (N = 278) examined relationships between perceived societal freedom and various conspiracy beliefs, while Study 4 (N = 246) experimentally tested whether manipulating perceptions of societal freedom affected belief in generic consp

SUBMITTER: Siemiatkowski M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12641589 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature