“The truth is in doubt here!”: Critically Assessing Sources and Information in a Conspiratorial World. A quantitative study of conspiracy mentality and conspiracy theory endorsement in relation to news media skepticism and -literacy, source preference, critical thinking dispositions and -skills.

Conspiracy theories thrive in today’s overly saturated media landscape, where media consumers constantly are bombarded with an abundance of information from both mainstream and alternative outlets. Facing this scenario, audiences have little other choice than to somehow decide who and what to believe, and to invoke some level of effort and skill in interpreting information. This thesis seeks to explore both ‘conspiracy mentality’ (an underlying disposition toward viewing events as the product of conspiracies) and the actual endorsement of certain specific conspiracy theories in relation to several variables relevant to media consumption. Two main areas of focus are explored: a) News media trust, source preference, and literacy; and b) Critical thinking dispositions and skills. By identifying, presenting, and drawing on relevant literature, as well as evaluating former endeavors regarding measurement of specific variables, the primary aim is to quantitatively explore these relationships through answering eight research questions. A quantitative, fixed-response cross-sectional questionnaire containing primarily a combination of previously validated-, existing but altered-, as well as self-developed multi-item Likert measuring scales forms the basis of findings. Data is collected from a demographically diverse non-probability convenience sample selection of Norwegians (N=125) of all ages, socio-cultural backgrounds, and with varying political views – as well as media preferences and habits. Initial observations reveal a moderately high level of general conspiracy mentality within the sample – as well as a prevailing presence of respondents who endorse various conspiracy theories. A series of bivariate correlation analyses and one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA’s) are run based on the gathered data in order to answer all research questions. Findings suggest that high skepticism towards mainstream media, as well as a positive attitude towards – and frequent consumption of – ‘alternative’ news media are all significantly related to both conspiracy mentality and conspiracy theory endorsement. Findings further suggest that susceptibility to informal fallacious arguments, in addition to an inability to identify nonsensical, but seemingly meaningful ideas (‘pseudo-profound bullshit’), are also correlated with conspiracy theory endorsement and -mentality. Partial, albeit weak, relationships to some aspects of news media literacy – such as understanding how filtering of information in the media can affect perceptions of reality – are also discovered in relation to conspiracy theory endorsement. Surprisingly, no significant findings are uncovered in relation to critical thinking disposition or source criticism abilities; although it is hypothesized that methodological flaws may be at fault for some of these results. Some possible implications of findings for journalists and media workers are discussed where applicable throughout, and upon conclusion.

Topic: Misinformation and Its Impacts
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences