Anti-immigration conspiracy beliefs are associated with endorsement of conventional and violent actions opposing immigration and attitudes towards democracy across 21 countries
Despite widespread speculation that conspiracy beliefs foster anti-democratic outcomes, the empirical picture is inconsistent. To clarify this literature, we examine the relationships that conspiracy beliefs have with commitment to reactionary action and criticism of democracy, focusing on a global issue: immigration. We expected that people who believe that their government uses immigration to diversify the population against citizens' wishes (anti-migration conspiracy beliefs) would be more committed to conventional and violent action to oppose immigration, and more critical of democracy. However, societal-level factors - economic performance and democratic functioning - were expected to influence (strengthen, weaken) these links. As hypothesized, multi-level analyses (N = 4353) from 21 countries revealed that economic prosperity attenuated the positive link between anti-migration conspiracy beliefs and commitment to reactionary action. Paradoxically, more democratic societies evidenced stronger links between conspiracy beliefs and conventional (but not violent) action to oppose immigration. Thus, more democratic societies appear to invite conventional forms of action to oppose immigration which may, in turn, weaken democratic norms of inclusion. Results highlight the interplay of individual- and societal-level factors underlying illiberal movements.
Authors
- Danny Osborne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8513-4125)
- Katherine Stroebe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3933-1531)
- Christina Stothard
- Ana Urbiola (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7967-9949)
- Sarah E. Martiny (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6791-2122)
- Soledad de Lemus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6191-9446)
- Eugene Y. J. Tee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9020-6771)
- Angela K.‐Y. Leung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2302-9941)
- Emma F. Thomas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8664-9748)
- Sandesh Dhakal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9702-9771)
- Martijn van Zomeren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4873-2177)
- Raja Intan Arifah binti Raja Reza Shah (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4475-802X)
- Anna Włodarczyk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2106-5324)
- Maura Pozzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2849-9344)
- Saba Safdar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9198-5228)
- Dijana Sulejmanović (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6745-9623)
- Nathan Weber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5611-8919)
- Magdalena Iwanowska (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0878-9523)
- Tomasz Besta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6209-3677)
- Gonneke Ton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0461-6286)
- Carlo Pistoni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6314-121X)
- Julia C. Becker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2456-1174)
- Kaltrina Kelmendi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6619-1415)
- Pravash Kumar Raut (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6261-6842)
- Rie Mizuki
- María Chayinska (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2373-5141)
- Gülçin Akbaş (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6932-2022)
- Tymofii Brik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5542-1019)
- Marek Palace (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3016-2118)
- Özden Melis Uluğ (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7364-362X)
- Anna Kende (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5148-0145)
- Maja Becker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1187-1699)
- Makiko Deguchi
- Paul Le Dornat
Institutions
- Eötvös Loránd University (HU)
- Kyiv School of Economics (UA)
- University of Messina (IT)
- HELP University (MY)
- Universidad de Antofagasta (CL)
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- Tribhuvan University (NP)
- University of Sussex (GB)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Flinders University (AU)
- Osnabrück University (DE)
- Universidad de Granada (ES)
- Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (FR)
- Flinders Medical Centre (AU)
- University of Gdańsk (PL)
- University of the Sacred Heart (JP)
- Sophia University (JP)
- Atilim University (TR)
- University of Bihać (BA)
- Fukushima University (JP)
- Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
- UiT The Arctic University of Norway (NO)
- University of Prishtina (XK)
- University of Guelph (CA)
- Singapore Management University (SG)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Communications Psychology
- Published
- 2025-04-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00246-1
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.20
Funders
- Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
- Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej
- Agencia Estatal de Investigación