Reelection fears make silence on conspiracy the safer posture for officials.

Evidence

It turns out that conspiracist claims are easy to create, and easy for officials to embellish, endorse, or just allow to play out. What lies behind complicity by insinuation, equivocation, or silence? As we detail in chapter 7, representatives are vulnerable to angry constituents who subscribe to conspiracy. When reelection is in jeopardy, or an official is haunted by the specter of a potential primary challenge, silence or coy encouragement seems a safer posture than correcting the record and offending one’s supporters. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 239

Categorization

• XREF: This rational-choice account of officials’ strategic silence connects to the broader literature on primary-challenge incentives and representation theory. — connects to: Elected officials know better yet dignify debunked conspiracy claims — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 235; Only elected officials can effectively counteract conspiracy for partisan voters — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 390; Fear of primaries drives officials’ conspiracist equivocation (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Fear of primaries drives officials’ conspiracist equivocation #expands (0.90)
• Party officials uniquely positioned to rebut conspiracism instead acquiesce for electoral survival #exemplifies (0.90) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 329
• Elected officials know better yet dignify debunked conspiracy claims #qualifies (0.85) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 235
• Compliant elite silence, not belief, enables conspiracism to delegitimize democracy #expands (0.85) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 138
• Elected partisans are the effective channel for speaking truth to conspiracy. #responds-to (0.85)
• Only elected officials can effectively counteract conspiracy for partisan voters #contradicts (0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 390