Conspiratorial Discourses on Social Media: Agendamelding Explorations and COVID-19

Abstract

This article examines a recent trend of popular conspiracism advancing in social media settings around the world. Drawing evidence from a national survey conducted in Cyprus, this study scrutinizes people’s melding tendencies with other individuals along with various social, technological, ideological, and demographic factors as predictors of conspiracism. While social media platforms constitute fertile environments that encourage alternative ideations, multiple factors encompassing ideology, education, income, and especially people’s distrust of institutions constitute significant predictors of conspiratorial tendencies.