Victims of Conspiracies? An Examination of the Relationship Between Conspiracy Beliefs and Dispositional Individual Victimhood
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Authors
Conspiracy beliefs have been linked to perceptions of collective victimhood. We adopt an individual perspective on victimhood by investigating the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and the individual disposition to perceive and react to injustice as a victim, i.e., victim justice sensitivity (VJS). Data from two German samples (Ns = 370, 373) indicated a positive association between VJS and conspiracy mentality beyond conceptually related covariates (e.g., mistrust). In a multinational sample from 15 countries (N = 14,978), VJS was positively associated with both general and specific conspiracy beliefs (about vaccines and climate change) within countries, though these associations varied across countries. However, economic, sociopolitical and cultural country-level factors that might explain the cross-country variability (e.g., GDP, Human Freedom Index, individualism–collectivism), including indices of collective exposure to direct violence, did not moderate the studied associations. Future research should investigate the relationship between victimhood and conspiracy beliefs, considering both intraindividual and intergroup perspectives.
Originalsprache | Englisch |
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Zeitschrift | European Journal of Social Psychology |
Anzahl der Seiten | 18 |
ISSN | 0046-2772 |
DOIs | |
Publikationsstatus | Angenommen/Im Druck - 2025 |
Bibliographische Notiz
Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). European Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- Sozialpsychologie
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
- SDG 3 – Gute Gesundheit und Wohlergehen
- SDG 13 – Klimaschutzmaßnahmen
- SDG 16 – Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und starke Institutionen