A test of the grapevine: An empirical examination of conspiracy theories among African Americans

This research examines the prevalence of belief in conspiracy theories amon g African Americans in one Deep South state and identifies the factors rela ted to these beliefs. Overall, there is a surprisingly strong belief in mos t conspiracy theories involving government Over 85% of the respondents agre ed or strongly agreed that African Americans are harassed by police because of their race and that the criminal justice system is not fair to Blacks. The theories with the least support involved transracial adoption, family p lanning, and needle-exchange programs as genocide. Through factor analysis, the 11 conspiracy theory questions were combined into conceptual scales. T he theories grouped into two distinct factors-malicious intent and benign n eglect, with benign theories the more prevalent of the two. Suprisingly, ag e, gender, and education were not significant in explaining beliefs in mali cious intent or benign neglect conspiracy theories. Among the interesting d ifferences between the two groups of theories, church attendance was not si gnificantly related to support for malicious intent theories, whereas it wa s negatively related to support for benign theories. The most important var iable for explaining belief in conspiracies was the perceived involvement b y African Americans in government Those who believed that Blacks could infl uence the political process were less likely to believe in conspiracy theor ies. This finding suggests that such beliefs in conspiracy theories will no t: be reduced until African Americans perceive that they have more of a rol e to play in their government.