From Conspiracy Orientation to Conspiracy Attribution: The Effects of Institutional Trust and Demographic Differences

Abstract

The current post-truth era is characterized by the rapid spread of conspiracy theories which has been exacerbated by public’s lack of agreement on objective facts and presentation of unverified information without supportive evidence. Existing research has examined a myriad of factors which explain the causes of conspiratorial thinking. To extend current research, this study examines the effects of institutional trust and demographic factors (i.e., age, gender, political ideology, household income and education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM]) in explaining conspiracy orientation (i.e., the dispositional tendency to subscribe to different conspiracy theories) and conspiracy attribution (i.e., the situational tendency to subscribe to conspiracy theories about specific problematic situations). A survey dataset (N = 720) was collected in South Korea. The findings showed that institutional trust had greater effects than STEM education in explaining conspiracy orientation and attribution. On the other hand, different demographic factors had different effects on conspiracy orientation and attribution.