Freedom of speech and conspiracy theories are linked - but weakly.

Freedom of speech and conspiracy theories are linked - but weakly.

Sample: 1 282 participants.

A series of studies had participants evaluate scenarios describing both real and fictional countries. For example, a participant might read about a made-up country - its level of free speech and events that could be seen as conspiratorial (like an opposition politician dying before an election).

Shown: in fictional countries, conspiracy beliefs increased as free speech levels decreased. In real countries, no direct link was found between free speech and conspiracy beliefs - unless the focus was on predicting future events, not current ones. The effect held for specific conspiratorial events, but not for general conspiracy beliefs. The relationship between free speech and conspiracy theories is complex and often weak.

Like this post if you think Liminach has a high level of free speech.

Link to an article.