That paper on conspiracy theory prevalence has a HUGE limitation that the authors only touch on briefly. Low social trust and conspiracism are both strongly associated with survey non-response. This has been a massive problem for pollsters in the US. (Low social trust is no longer evenly distributed across party coalitions, causing polls to consistently underestimate support for DJT.)
The paper doesn’t even mention the social trust literature. I found that astounding, especially at a time when the most consequential conspiracy theory in the US is that the last election was fraudulent. The researchers are casting the proverbial fishing net with 2-inch holes and report there are no fish smaller than 2 inches.
That paper on conspiracy theory prevalence has a HUGE limitation that the authors only touch on briefly. Low social trust and conspiracism are both strongly associated with survey non-response. This has been a massive problem for pollsters in the US. (Low social trust is no longer evenly distributed across party coalitions, causing polls to consistently underestimate support for DJT.)
The paper doesn’t even mention the social trust literature. I found that astounding, especially at a time when the most consequential conspiracy theory in the US is that the last election was fraudulent. The researchers are casting the proverbial fishing net with 2-inch holes and report there are no fish smaller than 2 inches.