Which people are the most conspiracy theorists: India in 1st place, in Italy it ranges from 9% to 30% based on the theory

According to the survey YouGov-Cambridge Globalism ProjecttheIndia it is the country in which on average conspiracy theories gather the most support. They are though Kenya, Nigeria And South Africa the people to show greater conviction on the theory that gathers the greatest average consensus, i.e. the idea that, beyond the official governments, there is a single secret group you control events and govern the world.

The European Commission defines conspiracy theories as narratives that certain events or situations are manipulated secretly by powerful forces with negative intentions. Among the recurring elements are an alleged secret plan, a group of conspirators and the idea that nothing happens by chance and that everything is connected.

One of the most interesting international investigations in recent years on this topic is the one conducted by YouGov in collaboration with Cambridge University, which in 2021 led to interviews of over 25 thousand people in 24 countries, asking how true they believed these 12 conspiracy theories:

1. The Occult World Government, according to which there is a single group of people who secretly control events and jointly rule the world
2. the 2016 US elections: This is the highly controversial case that members of Donald Trump’s campaign team knowingly collaborated with the Russian government to help him win the 2016 US presidential election
3. the harmful vaccines, conspiracy theory that the harmful effects of vaccines are deliberately hidden from the public
4. there defeat of Donald Trump, that is, the belief that Trump lost the 2020 US presidential election due to systematic voter fraud
5. there alien theorywhereby humans have had contact with aliens and this fact has been deliberately hidden from the public
6. theSeptember 11th, widespread conspiracy theory according to which the United States government knowingly contributed to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States
7. theAIDS created in the laboratorythat is, the idea that the AIDS virus was created and spread deliberately by a secret organization
8. there fake moon landingaccording to which the 1969 moon landings were faked
9. thenon-existence of global warming: it would be a hoax invented to deceive people
10. the pedophiles Satan worshipersi.e. the conspiracy theory that a secret group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles has taken control of parts of the US government and US mainstream media
11. The Holocaust denial, that the official account of the Nazi Holocaust is a lie and that the number of Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II was deliberately exaggerated
12. there pandemic invented by the “strong powers”so the coronavirus is an invention created by some powerful groups, and the virus does not actually exist.

If we take the average of these 12 theories as a reference, the Country that appears to be the most conspiracy theorist it’s theIndia. In particular, considering the answers “probably true” and “definitely true” together, Indians appear to be the most conspiracy-minded people regarding the topic of coronavirus (30%), global warming (32%), holocaust (35%), contact with aliens (37%) and fraud in the 2020 US elections (39%)

In other theories, India is not the country with the highest percentage of conspiracy theorists. By far the conspiracy that gathers the greatest average consensus is in fact the idea that, beyond the official governments, a only secret group controls events and governs the world. This belief is shared by as many as 72% of those interviewed in Kenya (almost 3 out of 4 inhabitants), 69% in Nigeria and 61% in South Africa, while in India it only reaches 50%.

Another of the theories that seems to have the most followers is the one relating to negative effects of vaccineswhich once again obtained the absolute majority of votes in Kenya (54%, or more than 1 in 2 people believe in a conspiracy). Always in Kenya then there is the highest percentage of people who believe in the conspiracy linked to Satan worshipers (37%).

The South Africa it is instead the State where people who believe in the conspiracy theory are most easily encountered Donald Trump and the Russians to help him with the elections (45%) and that AIDS was invented on the drawing board (40%).

Regarding the attackSeptember 11ththe country that most believes in the conspiracy theory is Türkiye (41%), while the moon landing finds more detractors in Thailand (36%).

There Denmark instead, it is the country that presents the lowest average level of consensus to the 12 theories examined. In particular, only 3% of Danes believe that the theory that AIDS was created and spread deliberately by a secret organization and that relating to Satan worshipers is true.

There is, however, one important exception. Regarding the theory on Donald Trump and the alleged collaboration with Russia in the 2016 elections, even in the generally more skeptical countries the percentages are high. In Denmark, for example, as many as 39% believe it to be true or probably true. These results remind us that a person can be very skeptical of one theory and simultaneously accept another when it coincides with their beliefs.

This variability within the individual nation can also be seen by observing the data for Italy, which overall occupies an intermediate position for all theories: those who believe in the conspiracy fluctuate between 9% when it comes to coronavirus or holocaust to 30% when the topic is the 2016 American elections.