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Traumatic Rift: How Conspiracy Beliefs Undermine Cohesion After Societal Trauma?

par Bilewicz, Michal;Witkowska, Marta;Pantazi, Myrto ;Gkinopoulos, Theofilos;Klein, Olivier
Référence Europe's Journal of Psychology, 15, 1, page (82-93)
Publication Publié, 2019-02-01

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

Collective traumas may often lead to deep societal divides and internal conflicts. In this article, we propose that conspiracy theories emerging in response to victimizing events may play a key role in the breakdown of social cohesion. We performed a nationally representative survey in Poland (N = 965) two years after the Smoleńsk airplane crash in which the Polish president was killed, together with 95 political officials and high-ranking military officers. The survey found that people endorsing conspiratorial accounts of the Smoleńsk catastrophe preferred to distance themselves from conspiracy non-believers, while skeptics preferred greater distance to conspiracy believers. We also examined the role of people’s belief in the uniqueness of in-group historical suffering as an important antecedent of both conspiracy thinking and hostility towards outgroups (conspiracy believers and non-believers).