The Role of Emotions, Perceived Avoidability and Attributes of Threat on conspiracies' endorsement

Background: In compensatory control literature, endorsement of conspiracy theories is regarded as a strategy to replenish a sense of control in threatening encounters. We hypothesized that emotions, anxiety and anger in particular, and perceived avoidability of the threatening event can predict the endorsement of conspiracy theories. We tested this hypothesis in the context of the recent social movement in Hong Kong, which is an emotional event to most of the Hongkongers and can be a convenient emotional stimulus as such.

Method: We conveniently recruited Hongkonger (N=170) to complete an online survey. In the beginning, we asked the people to autobiographically recall their emotional experience, either being angry or anxious, in the recent social movement in Hong Kong. We then measured their perceived avoidability towards the movement and their endorsement of conspiracy theories in various domains with relevant scales. To qualitatively analyze the emotional experience of the participants, we used thematic analysis in extracting themes in their discourse.

Result: As predicted, people perceiving the threat as avoidable were merely likely to endorse conspiracy theories. Anxiety was a significant predictor, though its effect was different in different domains of conspiracy theories. Five major themes emerged in summarising the sources of emotion in the movement, including destroy of core values, safety concern, violence, power and worry about the future. Destroy of core values and violence were significant predictors, but for different domains of conspiracy theories.

Discussion: These results suggest a linkage between perceived avoidability of threatening events, the emotions accompanied the threat and the endorsement of conspiracy theories. Attributes of the threat have a specific role in different domains of conspiracy theories.