IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/bjposi/v54y2024i4p1159-1179_7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nationalism, Status, and Conspiracy Theories: Evidence from Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Mir, Asfandyar
  • Siddiqui, Niloufer

Abstract

Does nationalism increase beliefs in conspiracy theories that frame minorities as subversives? From China to Russia to India, analysts and public commentators increasingly assume that nationalism fuels belief in false or unverified information. Yet existing scholarly work has neither theoretically nor empirically examined this link. Using a survey experiment conducted among 2,373 individuals and 6 focus groups with 6–8 participants each, for a total of 50 individuals, we study the impact of nationalist sentiment on belief in conspiracy theories related to ethnic minority groups in Pakistan. We find that nationalist primes – even those intended to emphasize the integration of diverse groups into one superordinate national identity – increase belief in statements about domestic minorities collaborating with hostile foreign powers. Subgroup analysis and focus groups suggest that nationalism potentially increases the likelihood that one views rights-seeking minorities as undermining the pursuit of national status.

Suggested Citation

  • Mir, Asfandyar & Siddiqui, Niloufer, 2024. "Nationalism, Status, and Conspiracy Theories: Evidence from Pakistan," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(4), pages 1159-1179, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:bjposi:v:54:y:2024:i:4:p:1159-1179_7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0007123424000140/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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:cup:bjposi:v:54:y:2024:i:4:p:1159-1179_7. 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jps .

    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.