The Role of Moral Concerns and Institutional Trust in Conspiratorial Thinking

ABSTRACT

Conspiracy theories often feature moral concerns and thrive when societal institutions are perceived as untrustworthy. However, limited research exists exploring whether moral concerns are associated with conspiracy thinking and if this link is strengthened when institutional trust is low. Two studies employing correlational (N = 423) and experimental (N = 381) designs found that liberty moral concerns, and to a lesser extent binding concerns, are associated with increased conspiratorial thinking, particularly when institutional trust is low. Moral concerns about liberty may contribute to increased conspiratorial thinking and low institutional trust may play a key role in exacerbating this link.

KEYWORDS:

• Conspiracy ideation
• liberty foundation
• morality
• trust in institutions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Publication ethics

All procedures in studies involving human participants were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution’s Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Missouri: IRB # 2075962.

Open Scholarship statement

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/xc7qh.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2024.2380839

Notes

1. Results did not change when participants who did not fall under liberal-conservative spectrum were included.

2. We also measured perceptions of Manichean Outlook toward the world. However, the scale showed poor reliability scores (Cronbach’s α = .42) and was excluded from analyses.

3. Study 2 also included a novel, exploratory measure of interest ratings of online conspiratorial memes. SOM provides a detailed breakdown of the ways in which interest in online conspiratorial memes were measured and their accompanying results.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Madhwa. S. Galgali

Madhwa Galgali is a PhD student in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Peter. J. Helm

Dr. Peter Helm is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Montana State University.

Jamie Arndt

Dr. Jamie Arndt is a Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Missouri, Columbia.