- 🚨New paper alert🚨 How do different "Great Replacement" conspiracy narratives (blaming relatively powerful left-wing elites or relatively powerless Muslim communities) affect radical collective action intentions against different targets across the political spectrum? A 🧵 about what we found:
- Our registered report with @valentinmang.bsky.social and @feitenglong.bsky.social has now been published in BJSP! We examined the radicalizing effects of different Great Replacement conspiracy narratives (Muslim vs. left-wing conspirators). See the link for the paper: doi.org/10.1111/bjso...
- In short: Exposure to any "Great Replacement" narrative increased radical action intentions against Muslims and against left-wing political elites across the political spectrum. The strongest and most consistent predictor of radical collective action intentions was right-wing political ideology.Feb 12, 2025 08:36
- What are our main take-aways? 💡Real-world implications: Exposure to the "Great Replacement" conspiracy can radicalise people by increasing not only their conspiracy beliefs, but also their hostile behavioural intentions against both Muslims and left-wing political elites.
- 💡Theoretical implications: The distinction between upward conspiracy theories, which blame powerful actors (e.g., left-wing political elites), and downward conspiracy theories, which blame powerless actors (e.g., minorities), does not seem to be important for these radicalisation processes.
- 💡Methodological implications: The choice of experimental design, measurement of behavioural intentions, target population, and broader societal context matter! Check out the paper for our discussion of these aspects and our recommendations for researchers investigating similar phenomena.
- 💡Implications for scientific practice: Registered Reports like this allow others to learn from null results and can help improve the publication landscape in psychology. Read the full paper here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
