Angry white men or uncertain white men? The effect of self-(un)certainty on conspiracy beliefs

Abstract

Previous studies indicate that an increase in self-uncertainty strengthens conspiracy beliefs. In the present article, we tried to reproduce this finding and elaborate on it by examining the effect of self-certainty. We argue that self-uncertainty threatens the positive self-image that people try to uphold which incites a need to compensate with certainty in domains such as conspiracy beliefs. Self-certainty is believed to have a mitigating effect. Also, we tried to extent the previous findings on self-uncertainty and conspiracy beliefs by examining justice sensitivity as a potential mediator. In a broader political perspective, we argue that self-uncertainty increases populist voting and self-certainty lessens it. We conducted an experiment using a questionnaire to test our hypotheses. Surprisingly, none of the hypotheses was supported by the results. However, victim sensitivity turned out to be an important predictor of conspiracy beliefs. Future studies could elaborate on this finding to give insight in the relation between victim sensitivity and conspiracy beliefs.