Conspiracy Theories and Institutional Trust: Examining the Role of Uncertainty Avoidance and Active Social Media Use

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dc.contributor.authorSuerdem, Ahmet
dc.date.accessioned2022-10-28T08:24:34Z
dc.date.available2022-10-28T08:24:34Z
dc.date.issued2022-04
dc.description.abstractAbstract: A generalized climate of distrust in political institutions is not functional to healthy democracies. With the advent of social media, recent scholarly efforts attempt to better understand people's conspiracy theory beliefs in inhibiting institutional trust. This study contributes to this literature by considering the direct antecedent effects of uncertainty avoidance and the moderating role of active social media use—SMU (i.e., interactional SMU, informational SMU, and political expressive SMU). The former is theorized to enable conspiracy theories to thrive, while the latter should cushion the negative effects of conspiracy beliefs on institutional trust. Relying on diverse survey data across different cultures from Europe, the Americas, and New Zealand (N = 11,958) and applying structural equation modeling, findings supported the hypothesized model. In high uncertainty-avoidance societies, where less well-known situations are perceived as uncomfortable or downright threatening, conspiracy beliefs proliferate and negatively impact institutional trust. Active SMU attenuates these effects. Via social media, citizens have the ability to strengthen social relationships (interactional SMU), keep themselves informed about the community (informational SMU), and engage in political self-expression (political expressive SMU), which mitigate conspiracy-belief negative effects on institutional trust. Future research implications and key limitations of the study are all discussed. © 2021 The Authors. Political Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society of Political Psychology.en_US
dc.fullTextLevelFull Texten_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1111/pops.12754en_US
dc.identifier.issn0162895X
dc.identifier.scopus2-s2.0-85104333708en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11411/4623
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12754
dc.identifier.wosWOS:000650492200001en_US
dc.identifier.wosqualityN/Aen_US
dc.indekslendigikaynakWeb of Scienceen_US
dc.indekslendigikaynakScopusen_US
dc.issue2en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.nationalInternationalen_US
dc.numberofauthors8en_US
dc.pages277-296en_US
dc.publisherJohn Wiley and Sons Incen_US
dc.relation.ispartofPolitical Psychologyen_US
dc.relation.publicationcategoryMakale - Uluslararası Hakemli Dergi - Kurum Öğretim Elemanıen_US
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessen_US
dc.subjectconspiracy beliefsen_US
dc.subjectcultural uncertainty avoidanceen_US
dc.subjectdigital influenceen_US
dc.subjectinstitutional trusten_US
dc.subjectsocial media useen_US
dc.titleConspiracy Theories and Institutional Trust: Examining the Role of Uncertainty Avoidance and Active Social Media Useen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.volume43en_US

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