scholarly journals Belief in conspiracy theories and attitudes toward political violence

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Federico Vegetti ◽  
Levente Littvay
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Steady Increase ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Political Radicalism ◽  
Political Actions ◽  
Political Targets ◽  
Western Democracies

Abstract In the last decade, political protest events have been rising in Western democracies. At the same time, there has been a steady increase in the diffusion of conspiracy theories in political communication, a phenomenon that has captured the interest of scholars for its growing political relevance. However, while most research focuses on the reasons why citizens believe in conspiracies, studies looking at the political-behavioral implications of such beliefs, in particular their connection to political radicalism, have been more limited. In this paper, we investigate the association between people's belief in conspiracies and their propensity to endorse political violence or to legitimate radical political action. Building on pathway theories of radicalization, we argue that conspiracy theories provide narratives that might help people channel their feelings of resentment toward political targets, fueling radical attitudes. We provide some correlational evidence using survey data of US respondents collected on MTurk. We observe attitudes toward political violence using two multi-item batteries, one developed by us. Our results show that people who score higher on a scale of generic conspiracy belief are also more likely to endorse violent political actions.

scholarly journals Belief in conspiracy theories, aggression, and attitudes towards political violence

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Vegetti ◽  
Levente Littvay
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Amazon Mechanical Turk ◽  
Steady Increase ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Radicalism ◽  
Political Targets

In the last decade, political protest events have been rising in Western democracies. At the same time, there has been a steady increase in the diffusion of conspiracy theories in political communication, a phenomenon that has captured the interest of scholars for its growing political relevance. However, while most research focuses on the reasons why citizens believe in conspiracies, studies looking at the political-behavioral implications of such beliefs, in particular their connection to political radicalism, have been more limited. In this paper we investigate the association between people's belief in conspiracies and their propensity to endorse political violence and to legitimate radical political action. We propose a model in which belief in conspiracies mediates the impact of dispositional aggression on radical attitudes, and test it empirically on an online sample of US residents collected on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our results suggest that conspiracy theories partially channel individuals' aggression towards political targets.

»Sometimes you just have to go in « – The link between conspiracy beliefs and political action

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pia Lamberty ◽  
David Leiser
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Violent Action ◽  
One Year

Even though conspiracy theories often address political issues, the question of how conspiracy beliefs affect people's political action has not been satisfyingly answered. We show how conspiracy beliefs are linked to political action. Study 1 (N = 203) shows that conspiracy beliefs were linked to violence. Study 2 (N = 268) supported the notion that conspiracy beliefs were linked to weaker support for normative actions and stronger support of violent action. In Study 3 (N = 180), we explored experimentally whether conspiracy beliefs increase violent action. The longitudinal Study 4 (N T1 = 523, N T2 = 274, N T3 = 199) showed over a timespan of one year that conspiracy beliefs increased non-normative political action.

Return of the Natives: Explaining the Development and Non-Development of Political Action by Indigenous Peoples in Democratic Political Systems

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-480
Author(s):  
Lee E. Dutter
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
North America ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Present Treatment ◽  
Or Groups ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Political Actions

Studies of individuals or groups who might use violence or terrorism in pursuit of political goals often focus on the specific actions which these individuals or groups have taken and on the policies which defenders (that is, governments of states) against such actions may adopt in response. Typically, less attention is devoted to identifying the relevant preconditions of political action and possible escalation to violence and how or why potential actions may be obviated before they occur. In the context of democratic political systems, the present analysis addresses these issues via examination of indigenous peoples, who typically constitute tiny fractions of the population of the states or regions in which they reside, in terms of their past and present treatment by governments and the political actions, whether non-violent or violent, which individuals from these peoples have engaged or may engage. The specific peoples examined are Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia, Haudenosaunee of North America, Inuit of Canada, Maori of New Zealand, and Saami of Scandinavia.

scholarly journals The Rise of Political Influencers— Perspectives on a Trend Towards Meaningful Content

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Riedl ◽  
Carsten Schwemmer ◽  
Sandra Ziewiecki ◽  
Lisa M. Ross
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Opinion Leaders ◽  
Important Research ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Past ◽  
Important Research Topic

Despite an increasing information overflow in the era of digital communication, influencers manage to draw the attention of their followers with an authentic and casual appearance. Reaching large audiences on social media, they can be considered as digital opinion leaders. In the past, they predominantly appeared as experts for topics like fashion, sports, or gaming and used their status to cooperate with brands for marketing purposes. However, since recently influencers also turn towards more meaningful and political content. In this article, we share our perspective on the rise of political influencers using examples of sustainability and related topics covered on Instagram. By applying a qualitative observational approach, we illustrate how influencers make political communication look easy, while at the same time seamlessly integrating product promotions in their social media feeds. In this context, we discuss positive aspects of political influencers like contributions to education and political engagement, but also negative aspects such as the potential amplification of radical political ideology or conspiracy theories. We conclude by highlighting political influencers as an important research topic for conceptual and empirical studies in the future.

scholarly journals Racionalización y poder La cuestión de la legitimidad en Weber como referente de la acción política

2017 ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Nicolás Fleet
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The Political ◽  
Legitimacy Theory ◽  
General Will ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Social Interests ◽  
Political Actions

ResumenEste artículo desarrolla, en tres pasos, una perspectiva original de la teoría de la dominación de Max Weber. El primer paso establece un vínculo necesario entre las formas típicas de dominación política y los intereses sociales, de modo que toda acción política debe legitimarse ante el interés general. El segundo paso explica las crisis de legitimación como una respuesta a cambios de identidad en la base social de la dominación política, de tal forma que se introduce un concepto dinámico de legitimidad. El tercer paso establece que los valores que habitan en las formas legitimas de dominación política son usados como orientaciones simbólicas por parte de intereses sociales y acciones políticas particulares, de manera que toda forma de legitimación de la autoridad encierra, en sus propias premisas, los argumentos que justifican luchas políticas hacia la modificación de los esquemas de dominación.Palabras clave: legitimidad, dominación, acción política, democratización.Abstract This article develops, in three steps, an orignal perspective of Weber’s legitimacy theory. The first one, establishes a necessary link that exists between the typical forms of legitimate domination and the social interests, in such a way that every political action that purse the realization of its interests has to legitimate itself before the general will. The second explains the legitimation crises as a response to indentity changes at the social base of the political domination and, in so doing, it introduces a dinamic concept of legitimacy. The third step states that the values that dwell in legitimate forms of political domination are used as symbolic orientations by particular social intersts and political actions, in a way that each form of authority legitimation encapsulate, in its own premises, the arguments that justify political struggles aiming toward the modification of the domination schemes.Key words: legitimacy, domination, political action, democratization.

Jihad and Political Violence

2002 ◽  
Vol 101 (658) ◽  
pp. 365-376
Author(s):  
Roxanne L. Euben
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Just Community

Jihad is neither simply a blind and bloody-minded scrabble for temporal power nor solely a door through which to pass into the hereafter. Rather it is a form of political action in which … the pursuit of immortality is inextricably linked to a profoundly this-worldly endeavor—the founding or re-creation of a just community on earth.

scholarly journals Religion and Support for Political Violence among Christians and Muslims in Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 948-979
Author(s):  
Amy Adamczyk ◽  
Gary LaFree
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
Political Action ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Action Collective ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Religious Terrorism ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Violent Political Action

Researchers have found consistently that religion reduces criminal behavior. Yet rising levels of political violence are frequently attributed to a new wave of religious terrorism. Our study seeks to reconcile this apparent discrepancy by studying the attitudes of people living in 34 African nations. Using data from the Afrobarometer survey and mixed modeling, we examine the influence of individual and collective religiosity for shaping civic engagement and willingness to engage in political violence. While individual religiosity decreases support for violent political action, collective religiosity increases it. The effects of religiosity are the same for Muslims and Christians and the country religious context minimally affects residents’ civic engagement and interest in violent political behavior. Our study underscores the importance of the theoretical and empirical distinction between individual and collective religiosity and offers insight into how civic engagement can be a pathway through which religion shapes support for political violence.

scholarly journals Can Sustainable Consumption Trigger Political Activism? An Empirical Investigation of the Crowding-in Hypothesis

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9082
Author(s):  
Frédéric Vandermoere ◽  
Robbe Geerts ◽  
Raf Vanderstraeten
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Online Forms ◽  
Political Act ◽  
Political Actions

In this article, we address the question whether political activism can be triggered by sustainable consumption. Specific attention is given to the crowding-out and crowding-in hypotheses. The first hypothesis is driven by a conflict view as it assumes that sustainable consumerism displaces the willingness to act collectively. In contrast, the latter hypothesis—crowding-in—frames conscious consumption as a potential political act whereby individual sustainable consumption may trigger political acts such as signing a petition, demonstrating, and voting. To address this issue, German survey data were analyzed (n = 936). Our analysis appears to confirm the crowding-in hypothesis. However, the results of multiple logistic regression analyses also show that the relation between sustainable consumption and political activism depends on the type of political action. Particularly, sustainable consumption does not relate to traditional political actions such as voting, but it does relate positively to less conventional (e.g., attending a demonstration) and online forms of political engagement (e.g., social media activism). Our findings also indicate that the positive association between sustainable consumption and less conventional politics may be moderated by educational attainment, suggesting that it is weakest among less educated groups. The paper ends with the empirical and theoretical conclusions that can be drawn from this study, and indicates some directions for future research.

Who are ‘the people’?

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 666-690
Author(s):  
Olga Pasitselska ◽  
Christian Baden
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Diverse Populations ◽  
Clear Definition ◽  
Ideological Discourse ◽  
The People ◽  
Dispersed Media ◽  
Conflict Narratives

Abstract As expressions without clear definition but with strong normative charging, empty signifiers play an important role in political discourse. Uniting diverse populations under a common banner and endowing political demands with self-evident legitimacy, they constitute a potent tool for rallying support for political action. Among empty signifiers, one particularly versatile construct are ‘the people’ as bearers of ultimate political legitimacy. In this paper, we investigate how ‘the people’ are constructed in propagandistic conflict narratives during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, imbuing the concept with different meanings in the pursuit of competing political ends. We show how ‘the people’ are constructed as democratic sovereign, enduring nation, moral humans or dispersed media publics, each time summoning different kinds of legitimacy and using different strategies to construct encompassing consensus and marginalize dissent. We discuss implications for the study of ideological discourse, populism and political communication.

scholarly journals Resilience to Online Disinformation: A Framework for Cross-National Comparative Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edda Humprecht ◽  
Frank Esser ◽  
Peter Van Aelst
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Northern European ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Southern European Countries ◽  
National Approach ◽  
Western Democracies ◽  
Cross National

Online disinformation is considered a major challenge for modern democracies. It is widely understood as misleading content produced to generate profits, pursue political goals, or maliciously deceive. Our starting point is the assumption that some countries are more resilient to online disinformation than others. To understand what conditions influence this resilience, we choose a comparative cross-national approach. In the first step, we develop a theoretical framework that presents these country conditions as theoretical dimensions. In the second step, we translate the dimensions into quantifiable indicators that allow us to measure their significance on a comparative cross-country basis. In the third part of the study, we empirically examine eighteen Western democracies. A cluster analysis yields three country groups: one group with high resilience to online disinformation (including the Northern European systems, for instance) and two country groups with low resilience (including the polarized Southern European countries and the United States). In the final part, we discuss the heuristic value of the framework for comparative political communication research in the age of information pollution.

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