The role of conspiracy beliefs and populist attitudes in shaping policy support within the economic context

Purpose: This work investigates how exposure to economic and financial conspiracy theories influences beliefs in such theories, economic and political populist attitudes, and economic redistribution policy support, in Italy and Germany. Background: Context-specific conspiracy beliefs refer to the conviction that powerful entities are plotting against society, in relation to specific social or political issues. Populist attitudes can be political or contextual. Methods: Study 1 (Italy) and Study 2 (Germany) employed a between-subject design: participants’ exposure to economic and financial conspiracy theories, vs. no exposure. A Monte Carlo power analysis for indirect effects was conducted. An online self-report questionnaire was implemented on Qualtrics for each study. Data collection took place in June 2024 via Prolific; participants were balanced by gender. Data analysis was conducted with SPSS and R. Results: Study 1 (Italy, N = 220) and Study 2 (Germany, N = 220) showed consistent effects of the exposure to economic and financial conspiracy theories on beliefs in such theories, which in turn influenced economic and political populist attitudes. However, the studies showed differing results regarding the role of the variables of interest on economic redistribution policy support. The role of political orientation was also taken into account. Conclusions: Although the results cannot be generalized, they demonstrate the complex relationship between context-specific conspiracy beliefs, political and contextual populist attitudes, and policy support within the economic context.