ABSTRACT
Conspiracy theories – explanations of social phenomena involving the covert actions of certain people – are everywhere today. From narratives about alien invaders and government cover-ups in Hollywood productions to widespread popular suspicions about the hidden workings of mainstream societal institutions like science, media and politics, conspiracy theories have in recent decades become a massive and mainstream cultural phenomenon. They are for many people nowadays an increasingly normalised idiom to account for what really happens out there, whether we speak about natural disasters, terrorist attacks or financial crises. However, despite this apparent popularisation of conspiracy theories, academic research on who actually endorses these alternative readings of reality is inconclusive and puts forward contradictory findings.
