As many as 40 percent of Lithuanians tend to believe in some conspiracy theories, according to the latest study by Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) researchers. However, education or income levels have little impact on people’s inclination to believe in conspiracy theories, they found.
“Conspiracy theories especially came into the public domain during the coronavirus pandemic. There are many myths about believing in conspiracy theories. We’ve tried to debunk some of them,” one of the researchers Ignas Kalpokas, told LRT RADIO.
According to KTU professor Ainius Lašas, the study revealed that war, economic situation, and pandemic have exacerbated dystopian thinking, especially a negative and hopeless view of the future. This context encourages an increasing number of people to believe in conspiracy theories.
“People are naturally looking for answers. And the dystopian answer that someone somewhere is controlling everything gives them an explanation,” Lašas said.
According to the researchers, conspiracy theories are often quite schematic and easily deconstructed.
“Conspiracy theories have a few elementary components. They say that there is a secret agreement between the powerful, which causes ordinary people to suffer. Many high-profile events are explained by this scenario,” said Arvydas Grišinas, a KTU researcher.
“Often, it is easier to explain the current situation and the anxiety that comes with a crisis in this way than to say that something is happening to us, and we don’t know what it is,” he added.
Who is most likely to believe conspiracy theories?
The researchers were surprised to find that the study failed to describe a typical person who tends to believe in conspiracy theories. Education and income had little impact on this inclination, they found.
“Age was slightly significant, and men were a bit more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, but all this is very much in the background of other factors,” Grišinas explained.
The most important factor, according to him, is the lack of trust in political institutions, the armed forces, and international organisations. A tendency to believe in supernatural phenomena – esotericism, astrology, or telepathy – also played a role. A third factor is a tendency to have a positive view of the Soviet era.
According to the researchers, however, Lithuania is not very different from other countries in its society’s tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. It is not only in Lithuania that this belief stems from a sense of loss of control, they stressed.
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