Victims of conspiracies? An examination of the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and dispositional individual victimhood.

Toribio-Flórez, Daniel, Altenmüller, Marlene S., Douglas, Karen M., Gollwitzer, Mario, Adinugroho, Indro, Alfano, Mark, Apriliawati, Denisa, Azevedo, Flavio, Betsch, Cornelia, Białobrzeska, Olga, and others. (2025) Victims of conspiracies? An examination of the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and dispositional individual victimhood. European Journal of Social Psychology, . ISSN 0046-2772. (doi:10.1002/ejsp.70008) (KAR id:110370)

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.70008

Abstract

Conspiracy beliefs have been linked to perceptions of collective victimhood. We adopt an individual perspective on victimhood by investigating the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and the individual disposition to perceive and react to injustice as a victim, i.e., victim justice sensitivity (VJS). Data from two German samples (Ns = 370, 373) indicated a positive association between VJS and conspiracy mentality beyond conceptually related covariates (e.g., mistrust). In a multinational sample from 15 countries (N = 14,978), VJS was positively associated with both general and specific conspiracy beliefs (about vaccines and climate change) within countries, though these associations varied across countries. However, economic, sociopolitical and cultural country-level factors that might explain the cross-country variability (e.g., GDP, Human Freedom Index, individualism–collectivism), including indices of collective exposure to direct violence, did not moderate the studied associations. Future research should investigate the relationship between victimhood and conspiracy beliefs, considering both intraindividual and intergroup perspectives.

Item Type:	Article
DOI/Identification number:	10.1002/ejsp.70008
Projects:	CONSPIRACY_FX
Uncontrolled keywords:	conspiracy beliefs, conspiracy theories, victim justice sensitivity, victimhood
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology > BF41 Psychology and philosophy
Institutional Unit:	Schools > School of Psychology
Former Institutional Unit:	There are no former institutional units.
Funders:	European Council for Construction Research, Development and Innovation (https://ror.org/00d7nha28)
Depositing User:	Daniel Toribio Florez
Date Deposited:	25 Jun 2025 14:07 UTC
Last Modified:	09 Sep 2025 11:58 UTC
Resource URI:	https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/110370 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Toribio-Flórez, Daniel.

Creator's ORCID:	https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9706-709X
CReDIT Contributor Roles:

Douglas, Karen M..

Creator's ORCID:	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0381-6924
CReDIT Contributor Roles:

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