DigitRes – Universität Innsbruck

Conspiracy narratives in the Austrian population: causes, risk factors and prevention

Conspiracy narratives and conspiracy mentalities – i.e. the fundamental disposition to believe in conspiracies – are leading to social and security policy challenges at an increasing rate, especially regarding their potential to endanger democracy. They have the potential to enable the rejection of democratic institutions and individual radicalization processes, which can promote hostility towards science and the establishment of “post-factual” discourses. Conspiracy narratives might also be purposefully used by extremist actors in order to spread their ideologies. Studies showed that older adults in particular are susceptible to conspiracy narratives. This phenomenon is closely correlated to a lack of media literacy. At the same time, older people are rarely a target group for prevention programmes, e.g. (critical) media education. The project is based on a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative research approaches (representative survey, qualitative interview research, discourse analysis). It examines the prevalence of conspiracy mentalities and narratives amongst different groups (i.a. age groups) within the Austrian population and their relation to individual and social factors as well as discursive strategies used to spread conspiracy narratives in online communication. Taking into account the experience of the procuring entities, the Ministry of the Interior (BMI/Direktion Staatsschutz und Nachrichtendienst) and the Bundesstelle für Sektenfragen, the project develops evidence-based prevention strategies and countermeasures specifically tailored to people aged 45+. It addresses a methodological and empirical research gap as well as the lack of target group-specific strategies in practice.

The project is funded by the Austrian Security Research Programme KIRAS of the Austrian Ministry of Finance.