Conspiracy theories are a social phenomenon that has been researched by several academic fields: From philosophy, historical and cultural science, to psychological research, conspiracy theories are and have been a topic of interest for many scholars. Taking a political communication perspective, this entry outlines the different approaches to define conspiracy theories and summarizes the current literature on the effects of conspiracy thinking on society. As the phenomenon of conspiracy theories is nowadays deeply connected to the networked dynamic of the social web, we also illustrate how conspiracy theories are spread, staged, and combatted in a digital, network media landscape.
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Schatto‐Eckrodt et al. (2024) studied this question.
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