Diversifying Conspiracy Beliefs and Populist Ideologies in the Chinese Context

Tianru Guan and Yilu Yang

Social Science Quarterly, 2020, vol. 101, issue 2, 459-472

Abstract: While previous research suggests that conspiratorial reasoning and populist ideology often walk hand‐in‐hand, this study explores their correlations by considering their internal heterogeneity in the sociopolitical context of China. Through an online survey (N = 807), the present investigation identifies two subtypes of populism (right‐ vs. responsibility‐oriented), alongside two subtypes of conspiracy beliefs (pro‐system vs. anti‐system), and examines the associations between them. The results demonstrate that while China's right‐oriented populism is positively correlated with anti‐system conspiratorial beliefs, it has no significant correlations with pro‐system conspiracy thinking. Responsibility‐driven populism, however, is positively correlated with pro‐system conspiratorial mindsets, and negatively correlated with anti‐system conspiratorial beliefs. This study moves away from viewing populism and conspiracy belief as homogeneous concepts, providing an often‐neglected Chinese context for these political–psychological ideations.

Date: 2020
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