IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v106y2025i4ne70042.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Country Setting Make a Difference? A Cross‐National Study on the Relationship Between Political Ideology and Conspiracy Mentality

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Stockemer
  • Jean‐Nicolas Bordeleau

Abstract

Objective The objective of this research is to investigate the relationship between political ideology and conspiracy beliefs across various country settings. In doing so, this research builds on the academic debate of whether the effect of left‐right ideological placement on conspiracy beliefs is linear, curvilinear (i.e., people to the extremes have a higher likelihood to believe in conspiracy theories), or tilted to the right (i.e., the likelihood of individuals believing in conspiracy theories increases for people on the [far] right of the political spectrum). Methods We rely on original cross‐national data from eight countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Lebanon, Morocco, South Africa, and the United States) to investigate the strength and shape of the ideology‐conspiracy belief relationship (N = 8101). Results Our results show that the relationship between political ideology is context specific. We also display that a simple categorical modeling strategy capturing the left, right, and center can provide an equally well if not a better model fit in some countries than the more complicated polynomial regression models that previous research suggest. Conclusion The relationship between political ideology and conspiracy theories is one that is highly dependent on context. This research warns researchers to consider the country context of a study before making methodological and analytical choices in studying political ideology and conspiracy beliefs.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Stockemer & Jean‐Nicolas Bordeleau, 2025. "Does Country Setting Make a Difference? A Cross‐National Study on the Relationship Between Political Ideology and Conspiracy Mentality," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 106(4), July.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:106:y:2025:i:4:n:e70042
    DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.70042
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.70042
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ssqu.70042?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:106:y:2025:i:4:n:e70042. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.