Abstract
Conspiracy theories are usually defined as explanations of social facts according to whichgroups of extremely powerful actors secretly infl uence the economic, political, and socialsystems in a way that goes beyond what is realistic to expect in an open society. With thepandemic crisis, the so-called “infodemic” and the consequences that it led to (in terms ofvaccination rates and compliance to health regulations) made clear that conspiracy theoriesand people who believe in them are here to stay, and that can harm the social and politicalfabric of liberal democracies. The literature on the topic mainly focused on conspiracytheories’ believers, their political and demographic characteristics, their psychological traits,and their reactions to new theories. Another line of research analyzed the production of thesetheories, namely, the (mainly virtual) places in which they are produced and diff used. The SUSPECTS project aims at integrating and expanding these two strands of the literature,by proposing a supply-and-demand theoretical framework: according to our framework, theecosystem that encompasses the consumption and production of conspiracy theories can beseen as a market, in which conspiracy theories are “produced” and “sold” by relevant actors -such as infl uencers, public fi gures, but also (and more concerningly) politicians. At the sametime, the theories are “consumed” by the general audience, or by particularly receptive partsof it. More specifi cally, SUSPECTS aims at analyzing the ways in which specific politicians and political leaders are able to exploit conspiracy theories in order to increase their popularity.Applying a supply-and-demand framework to the conspiracy theories’ ecosystems representsa potential leap forward in analyzing the phenomenon, as it allows to explicitly take intoaccount both the mass public and a political elite that seems to be increasingly attracted bymore aggressive/fringe types of communication. The project investigates the demand and supply of conspiracism in six European countries(Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Sweden and Poland). The project has 3 main aims. 1) By usingquantitative social media analysis, we will investigate the environments in which the demandand supply of conspiracy theories emerge. We will study the role that conspiracist groups havein producing and disseminating these theories, with particular reference to the connectionsthat these groups have with political entrepreneurs. 2) By using qualitative analysis of leaders’political communication, we will investigate the “supply side” of the conspiracist ecosystem,focusing on the ways in which political leaders contribute to spreading theories. 3) by usingoriginal survey data, we investigate the "demand-side", by focusing on how much citizens areinfl uenced by conspiracist communication enacted by politicians and conspiracy theorists, andwhich strategies are more likely to be successful.
Dettagli del progetto
Responsabile scientifico: Salvatore Vassallo
Strutture Unibo coinvolte:
Dipartimento delle Arti
Coordinatore:
Università degli Studi di TORINO(Italy)
Contributo totale Unibo: Euro (EUR) 81.871,00
Durata del progetto in mesi: 24
Data di inizio
28/09/2023
Data di fine:
28/02/2026
