IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v86y2005i3p582-598.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories Among African Americans: A Comparison of Elites and Masses

Author

Listed:
  • William Paul Simmons
  • Sharon Parsons

Abstract

Objective. Several studies have reported a widespread belief in conspiracy theories among African Americans. Such theories have been shown to have possible deleterious effects, especially when they deal with HIV/AIDS. It has been conjectured that African‐American elites could play a role in dispelling these beliefs, unless, of course, they believe in these theories themselves. To examine this possibility the present study examines the conspiratorial beliefs of African‐American locally elected officials in Louisiana and compares them with a previous study of African‐American churchgoers in the same state. Methods. A systematic sample of 400 African‐American locally elected officials was drawn from a list of all African‐American elected officials in the state and 170 officials completed and returned the mail survey. Confirmatory factor analysis and OLS regression were used to analyze the attitude structure and determinants of beliefs, respectively. Results. The locally elected officials believe in these theories as much as the churchgoers and the structures of their beliefs are also very similar. In some very important ways, however, the predictors of these beliefs differ between the two samples. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that beliefs in conspiracy theories are widespread and that African‐American locally elected officials will not seek to dispel these beliefs.

Suggested Citation

  • William Paul Simmons & Sharon Parsons, 2005. "Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories Among African Americans: A Comparison of Elites and Masses," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 86(3), pages 582-598, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:86:y:2005:i:3:p:582-598
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00319.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00319.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00319.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kadarisman Hidayat & Mekar Satria Utama & Umar Nimran & Arik Prasetya, 2023. "The effect of attitude and religiosity on tax compliant intention moderated by the utilization of e-Filing," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(4), pages 712-723, December.
    2. Samuel Stroope & Rhiannon A. Kroeger & Courtney E. Williams & Joseph O. Baker, 2021. "Sociodemographic correlates of vaccine hesitancy in the United States and the mediating role of beliefs about governmental conspiracies," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2472-2481, November.
    3. Lihi Lahat & Gila Menahem, 2009. "Causes and Remedies for Poverty: Perceptions among Local Elected Leaders in Israel," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(2), pages 1-31, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:86:y:2005:i:3:p:582-598. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.