Einstein and Glick [Einstein, K.L. and Glick, D.M. (2015) ‘Do I think BLS data are BS? The consequences of conspiracy theories’, Political Behaviour, 37(3): 679-701] found the negative effect of conspiracy theories on trust, but only if the conspiracy theory was not explicitly labelled as such. In their study, explicitly naming it a conspiracy theory seemed to ‘inoculate’ people against it.
– ‘Conspiracy theories, political ideology and political behaviour’, in Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories (2020), p. 305
Miller et al. [Miller, J.M., Saunders, K.L. and Farhart, C.E. (2016) ‘Conspiracy endorsement as motivated reasoning: the moderating roles of political knowledge and trust’, American Journal of Political Science, 60(4): 824-44] found that political knowledge was positively related to belief in conspiracy theories, but only among those low on political trust.
– Ibid., p. 306
Similar findings were described by Krouwel et al. [Krouwel, A., Kutiyski, Y., van Prooijen, J.-W., Martinsson, J. and Markstedt, E. (2017) ‘Does extreme political ideology predict conspiracy beliefs, economic evaluations and political trust? Evidence from Sweden’, Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 5(2): 435-62], who found support for the curvilinear relationship between the left/right continuum and conspiracism in Sweden. Interestingly, but conversely, the curve was steeper for participants on the left side of the continuum in Sweden, meaning that, in this case, leftists were more likely to subscribe to conspiracy beliefs.
– Ibid., p. 307
Interestingly, the same positive relationship with conspiracy belief was also found for many radical left parties. In the Netherlands, for example, there is a strong correlation between a vote propensity for the Socialist Party (S.P.) and conspiracy belief, as is the case with Vänsterpartiet in Sweden, Alternativet and Enhedslisten in Denmark, and Die Linke in Germany. An explanation for this finding of conspiracy mentalities among voters at both ends of the political spectrum may be due to the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and anti-establishment attitudes, which are more widespread at the extremes […].
– Ibid., p. 309