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The Impact of Freedom of Speech on Conspiracy Beliefs

par Bertin, Paul ;Tognon, Elisa;Nera, Kenzo ;Bajraktari, Rrita ;Klein, Pit ;Yzerbyt, Vincent ;Klein, Olivier
Référence European journal of social psychology, 26, 1, page (115-130)
Publication Publié, 2026-02-01

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

Conspiracy beliefs are often portrayed as a threat to democracies. However, less is known about the extent to which the state of democracy may affect conspiracy beliefs. Hence, we investigated the impact of the societal level of freedom of speech on conspiracy beliefs. In Study 1, using aggregated nation-level data (N = 68 countries), we found that conspiracy beliefs were higher in countries with lower population support for and lower expert-estimated freedom of speech. However, this effect was no longer significant after controlling for two confounders: corruption and electoral democracy. In Study 2a (N = 190, preregistered), inducing low (vs. high) freedom of speech increased conspiracy beliefs in a fictional society. We replicated this effect in Study 2b (N = 90, preregistered), extending it to generic conspiracy beliefs. In Study 3a (N = 436, preregistered), we successfully designed a new induction of freedom of speech in an ecological setting but failed to replicate its effect on conspiracy beliefs. We adjusted this new experimental material in Study 3b (N = 498, preregistered) and observed higher conspiracy beliefs under low freedom of speech, compared to the high freedom of speech and control conditions, which did not differ. Hence, the effect stemmed from low freedom of speech increasing conspiracy beliefs, rather than high freedom of speech reducing them. In Studies 2–3, the effect of freedom of speech remained significant when controlling for perceptions of democracy, highlighting the unique nature of this societal factor in shaping conspiracy beliefs. We discuss freedom of speech as a way to mitigate conspiracy beliefs.