Conspiracy Mentality and Extremism - Survey Findings from Switzerland

The article aims at, on the one hand, to examine the relationship between conspiracy mentality and violent extremist attitudes. On the other hand, factors influencing conspiracy mentality are examined, assuming that anomic attitudes, distance to the political system, and right-wing authoritarianism increase conspiracy mentality. To test the hypotheses, two samples are used: a nationwide youth survey among 8,317 pupils and a nationwide representative survey among 2,111 adults. Both samples show largely comparable findings: Anomic attitudes, low institutional trust and political deprivation increase conspiracy mentality, while authoritarianism does not. A more pronounced conspiracy mentality in turn increases agreement to extremist attitudes, whereby this correlation is stronger in the youth than in the adult sample.