Global erosion of institutional trust sustains conspiracy belief beyond any single political era

Evidence

But conspiracism won’t die when the Trump era ends; it will persist and grow stronger, in large part because of our social stratification, our sense of disenfranchisement from the political system, our low trust in what we now derisively term the “mainstream media.” An April 2017 Harvard-Harris poll found that a full 65 percent of voters believe “there is a lot of fake news in the mainstream media,” including 80 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of Independents, and 53 percent of Democrats. Eighty-four percent of voters said it’s “hard to know what news to believe online.” The problem is not limited to the United States: A twenty-eight-country survey released in January 2018 found that twice as many people said they distrusted the media as trusted it, and many reported they were cutting back on news entirely. An erosion of faith in institutions, including media outlets, is global. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 112

Categorization

• XREF: Distrust-as-social-identity driver parallels vault claims connecting authoritarianism/prejudice to perceived mainstream rejection; bridges to Christian-nationalism epistemic distrust of liberal institutions. — connects to: Conspiracy belief has long spanned the American political spectrum — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 26; Conspiracy belief is universal across demographics while specific theories split along party lines — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 93; Collapse of institutional trust creates a narrative power vacuum that conspiracy ideologies fill — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 122 (+7 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing whether the reader’s vault sources on authoritarianism also predict partisan-asymmetric media distrust, since these numbers show majority distrust across parties.

Broader Connections

• Collapse of institutional trust creates a narrative power vacuum that conspiracy ideologies fill #expands (0.90) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 122
• Stress and institutional distrust drive Americans toward conspiracy explanations of unwelcome reality. #exemplifies (0.85) — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 54
• Conspiracy worldviews corrode the shared trust reality depends on. #complicates (0.80) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 137
• Conspiracy beliefs erode democratic participation and breed extremism #expands (0.72) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 287
• Trust survives widespread fraud in advanced economies #contradicts (0.72)