Victims of conspiracies? An examination of the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and dispositional individual victimhood

Abstract

Conspiracy beliefs have been linked to perceptions of collective victimhood. We adopt an individual perspective on victimhood by investigating the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and the individual disposition to perceive and react to injustice as a victim, i.e., victim justice sensitivity (VJS). Data from two German samples (Ns = 370, 373) indicated a positive association between VJS and conspiracy mentality beyond conceptually related covariates (e.g., mistrust). In a multinational sample from 15 countries (N = 14,978), VJS was positively associated with both general and specific conspiracy beliefs (about vaccines and climate change) within countries, though these associations varied across countries. However, economic, sociopolitical and cultural country-level factors that might explain the cross-country variability (e.g., GDP, Human Freedom Index, individualism–collectivism), including indices of collective exposure to direct violence, did not moderate the studied associations. Future research should investigate the relationship between victimhood and conspiracy beliefs, considering both intraindividual and intergroup perspectives.

Metadata

Item Type:	Article
Authors/Creators:	Toribio‐Flórez, D. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9706-709X Altenmüller, M.S. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1714-3601 Douglas, K.M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0381-6924 Gollwitzer, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4310-4793 Adinugroho, I. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8858-1908 Alfano, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5879-8033 Apriliawati, D. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6452-073X Azevedo, F. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9000-8513 Betsch, C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2856-7303 Białobrzeska, O. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0387-3187 Bret, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9129-0415 Valdez, A.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6214-1461 Cologna, V. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3706-8669 Czarnek, G. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4152-3580 Delouvée, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4029-597X Doell, K.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0043-9609 Dohle, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1535-5464 Dubrov, D. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8146-4197 Dzimińska, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7998-8178 Elbaek, C.T. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7039-4565 Facciani, M. Fage‐Butler, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4849-0227 Ferreira, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3571-9221 Friese, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0055-513X Fuglsang, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0393-0003 Gallyamova, A. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8775-7289 Garrido‐Vásquez, P. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9561-8983 Vásquez, M.E.G. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6451-4308 Genschow, O. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6322-4392 Ghasemi, O. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7511-5580 Gkinopoulos, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0853-5272 Brambila, C.G. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7633-5091 Gordon, H.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4053-6419 Grigoryev, D. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4511-7942 Hernández‐Mondragón, A.C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1456-6801 Jin, T. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6047-066X Jungkunz, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1040-8635 Jurgiel, D. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2934-5961 Kerr, J.R. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6606-5507 Kojan, L. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4064-4447 Komyaginskaya, E. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8841-1722 Lamm, C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5422-0653 Légal, J. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6410-3971 Levy, N. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5679-1986 Marques, M.D. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5486-650X Mayer, S.J. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6267-4391 Mede, N.G. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5707-7568 Milfont, T.L. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6838-6307 Mitkidis, P. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9495-7369 Nitschke, J.P. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3244-8585 Paruzel‐Czachura, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8716-9778 Parzuchowski, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8960-0277 Pronizius, E. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1446-196X Pypno‐Blajda, K. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3024-3535 Rêgo, G.G. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3304-4723 Ross, R.M. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8711-1675 Schmid, P. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2966-0806 Stanley, S.K. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1272-5768 Syropoulos, S. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5622-1417 Szumowska, E. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4181-6175 Teran‐Escobar, C. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9485-6859 Todorova, B. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4840-498X Vilares, I. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1500-3864 Warwas, I. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8066-746X Weber, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0507-0070 Westfal, M. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4693-6835 Wojcik, A.D. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7073-6019
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s). European Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords:	conspiracy beliefs; conspiracy theories; victim justice sensitivity; victimhood
Dates:	Accepted: 19 June 2025 Published (online): 17 July 2025 Published: 17 July 2025
Institution:	The University of Sheffield
Academic Units:	The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield)
Depositing User:	Symplectic Sheffield
Date Deposited:	08 Aug 2025 13:47
Last Modified:	08 Aug 2025 13:47
Status:	Published online
Publisher:	Wiley
Refereed:	Yes
Identification Number:	10.1002/ejsp.70008
Related URLs:	Author Dataset
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Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID):	oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:230028