How Alternative Media and Electoral Defeat Fuel Conspiracy Beliefs

The research on conspiracy theory belief has several limitations: most of it is based on a) cross-sectional data, b) coming from the US and other Western European countries, c) with media consumption measured by self-reported behaviour of respondents. We try to tackle these limitations by using the data from two-wave panel survey conducted in 2021-2023, before and after the 2021 Czech parliamentary election, supplemented by web-tracking of respondents’ media consumption. The results indicate that conspiracy belief increased among respondents who consumed so-called alternative media. In addition, the belief in conspiracy theories increased also among the losers of the 2021 election (voters of parties that did not form the government after the election), suggesting that losing in an election decreases institutional trust which then increases belief in conspiracy theories. In addition to analyzing original data from a two-wave panel survey, this study will include secondary analysis of other panel data on conspiracy beliefs to contextualize and compare findings across different contexts.