Promoting Conspiracy Theories Strategically: Evidence from Congressional Tweets

• In Event: Money in Politics: Candidate Strategy and Donor Behavior

Abstract

The rise of social media has brought with it growing concerns about conspiracy theories, fake news, and other forms of misinformation. What motivates political elites to amplify conspiracy theories? What constrains them from doing so? Our proposed theoretical framework highlights the potential of conspiracy theories to mobilize supporters, at the risk of backlash from independent and opposing voters. Using an original dataset of conspiracy theory-promoting tweets along with campaign contribution data from the FEC, we examine whether members of Congress promote conspiracy theories due to their ability to mobilize supporters to contribute financially. We find that members who represent constituencies with more partisan supporters and who raise a higher proportion of contributions from individual donors are more likely to promote conspiracy theories on Twitter. Furthermore, conspiracy theory promotion is associated with an increase in campaign contributions, at least for Republican donors.

Authors

• David Hilden, University of Houston

• Michael Kistner, University of Houston