Narratives, Conspiracies, and Political Violence: An Exploratory Study

• In Event: Modern Day Terrorism

Abstract

While conspiracy theorists have always existed on the fringes of society, they have come to the national forefront in recent years due to a series of widely reported violent events involving them. Research suggests that there is, in fact, a correlation between the propensity to believe in conspiracy theories, and one’s propensity to engage in violence (Parent & Uscinski, 2014). The need for understanding this relationship is demonstrated by recent acts of violence, such as the recent shooting at a pizza shop, colloquially referred to as “Pizzagate”. However, there is limited data regarding this relationship, and what does exist is limited through the scope of political science and psychology. Considering the potential costs of conspiracy theorists engaging in political violence, and the very real violence that has already occurred, a greater understanding of this relationship is necessary to guide further research as well as potential policy implications. This paper conducts secondary data analysis on existing survey data regarding the propensity to believe in political conspiracy theories in America, as well as original data obtained from news crawlers and RSS feeds regarding conspiracy-inspired violence, as the first step in building a criminological model that connects attitudinal predisposition to behavioral outcome.

Author

• Katherine Parsons, American University