Control Conspiratorial Thinking

Youth is by far the single most influential sociodemographic predictor of conspiracy beliefs.
     This conclusion from a pair of University of Ottawa researchers is based on their meta-analysis of 110 prior studies which measured the statistical relationship between a person’s age and their degree of conspiratorial thinking and then the researchers’ own analysis of this relationship among people living in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, South Africa, and the U.S. This collection of countries represents a range of political and cultural traditions.

     For their inquiries, the researchers defined conspiratorial thinking as efforts to explain causes of important events by placing blame on secret plots orchestrated by powerful actors. This general tendency has driven beliefs such as that climate change is a hoax and that a group of Satan-worshipping elites are running a child sex ring. There are instances when belief in a conspiracy is justified, but when it is not, the corrosive impact of conspiratorial thinking on our political and cultural dialogues begs questions about who succumbs.
     So why does age seem so central to conspiratorial thinking? The study data support three answers in comparing younger to older adults: 

• Young adults are more likely to express their political preferences via social protest, and social protest movements incorporate belief systems which cultivate conspiracies. These include accusations of injustice and suspicion of compromise. 
• Young adults are more likely to have low self-esteem, and adhering to conspiracy beliefs provides feelings of worth and power. 
• Young adults are less likely to believe their interests are supported by political office holders. This is because the office holders are often substantially older than the young adults. One result is distrust of political institutions.

     In reporting their conclusions, the University of Ottawa researchers highlight the limitations of their inquiry. This is a study of correlations, so although we’ve reason to believe that as people age, they become less likely to engage in conspiratorial thinking, we can’t definitively say aging, in itself, causes the decrease. In addition, the studies were cross-sectional, not longitudinal: People of different ages at one point in time were assessed rather than tracking the same people over the years to see what happens to their conspiratorial thinking.
     The questions of causation still beg for answers. Age counts, but the cause is probably a combination of factors. For now, in correcting dangers of conspiratorial thinking, let’s pay particular attention to young adults.

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Image at top of post based on photo by Vitaly Gariev from Unsplash