{"id":26911,"date":"2018-11-23T19:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-11-23T19:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=26911"},"modified":"2018-11-23T19:00:12","modified_gmt":"2018-11-23T19:00:12","slug":"are-conspiracy-theories-a-side-effect-of-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/are-conspiracy-theories-a-side-effect-of-brexit\/","title":{"rendered":"Are conspiracy theories a side effect of Brexit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pro-Brexit individuals are considerably more likely to believe in conspiracy theories \u2013 recent research says. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The <\/span>study<\/span><\/a>, funded by a non-profit British organisation, Leverhulme Trust, has found that approximately 60% of Britons give credence to at least one conspiracy theory. The bizarre ideas are often related to how the government runs the country and the way mass-media presents the information to audiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost half of Brexit voters (47%) believe that the number of immigrants living in the UK was concealed by authorities. Not less than 31% of leave voters believe that Muslim immigration was part of a wider scheme to make Islamic population a majority in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

According to the study, the most popular conspiracy belief in the UK was that \u201ceven though we live in what\u2019s called a democracy, a few people will always run things in this country anyway,\u201d shared by 44% of individuals. The scepticism towards British authorities was high, with around 75% of people distrusting companies, mass-media and government ministers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The research, conducted by YouGov and University of Cambridge researchers, was part of a large-scale international project, which investigated nine countries for over six years now. The results mark the first time academics analysed problems as social trust and conspiracy theories. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Photo: Courtesy of Marco Oriolesi via Unsplash<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Voice of London has asked young Londoners about their beliefs in conspiracy theories.<\/span><\/p>\n

Irina, 23, said: \u201cI don\u2019t really believe in conspiracy theories. They all seem like silly ideas. I think that people consider them true because they need an explanation for anything. Some things just don\u2019t have justification.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t usually give credit to conspiracy theories, but I believe that the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was abducted by aliens. It disappeared without a single trace, no one was able to find it. I can\u2019t find any better explanation for this event,\u201d declared Sarah, 19.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arthur, 22 said: \u201cOf course I believe in conspiracy theories! Everything that happens in this world, from disappearances to Illuminati, is linked to something that is way bigger than us. I can\u2019t find reasonable causes for the disappearances which occurred in the Bermuda Triangle, for example.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

conspiracy theories & chill until we start to get illuminaughty<\/p>\n

\u2014 cesar (@proxactears) November 17, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

The belief in a group like the NSA was once seen as a paranoid #conspiracytheory<\/a> too.<\/p>\n

Yet it sadly is very much reality. As we now all know.<\/p>\n

Not trusting Alexa-type devices is just good use of common sense based on recent history.<\/p>\n

\u2014 MyaTuesday (@MyaTuesday) November 19, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

#BlackFriday<\/a> is a myth. Pass it on. #ConspiracyTheory<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/17cXk1d1Sq<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Culturebean\u2744 (@Culture_bean) November 23, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jim McClellan, professor at University of Westminster, told VoL: \u201cPeople believe in conspiracy theories because they offer a simple version of the world. They enable individuals to understand the universe, which is complex and complicated. It\u2019s easier to blame something on simple causes such as aliens or secret societies.”<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Featured Image: Stefano Pollio via Unsplash<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Words and graphs: Catalina Ioana Oblu | Subbing: Shruti Tangirala<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pro-Brexit individuals are considerably more likely to believe in conspiracy theories \u2013 recent research says. The study, funded by a non-profit British organisation, Leverhulme Trust, has found that approximately 60% of Britons give credence to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":26912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,114,134],"tags":[998,1506,5964,6307,6538],"class_list":["post-26911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-society","category-uknews","tag-brexit","tag-conspiracy","tag-study","tag-theories","tag-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}