This dissertation examines how the once-obscure QAnon conspiracy theory made the jump from the far-reaches of the internet to our mainstream political discourse. I contend that gamification, or the application of game-like elements to non-game phenomena, has increased the persuasive power of conspiracy theories such as QAnon and allowed for their mainstreaming into everyday political culture. In short, I want to understand how persuasive gamification makes information in today's politically charged digital media ecosystems. The three empirical chapters of this dissertation provide evidence for the argument. In chapter three, I present a survey-experiment, using the conspiracy theory that hip-hop star Tupac was not actually murdered, but that he rather faked his death to escape the pressures of stardom. Here I find statistically significant evidence that gamification increased the persuasiveness of conspiracy theories. In chapter four, I present a second similarly structured survey-experiment using the conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Here, I found mixed evidence on the ability of gamification to increase the persuasiveness of conspiracy theories, but I argue that further investigation is warranted. In chapter five, I provide some of the contextual color for the QAnon conspiracy theory to help better understand its key players and sketch how the game itself functions. The dissertation concludes with an examination of some of the consequences of believing in these kinds of conspiracy theories, including the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, and prospects for future political radicalization. / Doctor of Philosophy / How did a once obscure conspiracy theory that claimed a major Democratic party presidential candidate harvested the blood of the opposing party's children become part of mainstream American political discourse? While conspiracy theories are by no means a new phenomenon, their mainstreaming into our everyday politics is. This dissertation examines how the QAnon conspiracy theory has used gamification, or the application of game-like elements to non-game phenomena, to increase the persuasive power of the conspiracy theory. In short, I want to understand how persuasive gamification makes information in today's politically charged digital media ecosystems. In the same way that playing the McDonald's monopoly game incentivizes you to purchase more hamburgers and fries, the puzzle-like structure of the QAnon conspiracy theory draws believers into the theory and makes it hard to escape. Using two separate studies of two different conspiracy theories, I find mixed but promising evidence that gamification can increase the persuasiveness of modern online conspiracy theories such as QAnon. The dissertation concludes with an examination of some of the consequences of believing in these kinds of conspiracy theories, including the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, and prospects for future political radicalization.

Conspiracy theory beliefs have become ubiquitous within our society. One cannot partake in any form of media without confronting different conspiracy theories, such as beliefs that the Earth is flat, that birds are not real, that the moon landing was fake, or that vaccines cause autism spectrum disorder. Conspiracy theories are beliefs that revolve around false explanations of public and political events concerning a secret organization with malicious intent. What makes people vulnerable to conspiracy theory beliefs? Prior research indicates that people often adopt conspiracy beliefs in an attempt to reduce feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, and threat. Unfortunately, prior research also suggests that conspiracy theory beliefs might not relieve these negative emotional states. As a result, one might conclude that conspiracy theory beliefs are misguided attempts to regulate one’s emotional state during times of anxiety and uncertainty. The goal for the current research was to gain a greater understanding of who may be more susceptible to conspiracy theory beliefs. As prior research has shown that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) often predict poorer emotion regulation, we wanted to explore whether ACEs may predict conspiracy theory beliefs as explained through emotion dysregulation. In this exploratory research, we recruited 719 participants online through Sona at East Tennessee State University (Mage= 19.98) and asked participants to complete two scales to measure conspiracy theory beliefs, the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCB) and the Conspiracy Mentality Scale (CM), as well as self-report measures of ACEs and emotion dysregulation. Results showed that ACEs did not directly predict conspiracy theory beliefs; however, when emotional dysregulation was included as a mediator, ACEs predicted conspiracy theory beliefs on both GCB and CM scales. This suggests that people who indicated experiencing more ACEs within the first 18 years of life tended to score higher in emotion dysregulation and will have more difficulty regulating their own emotions when it comes to social and environmental problems. Because of this, individuals who experienced more ACEs may rely on external factors and maladaptive coping strategies, such as conspiracy theory beliefs, to regulate their negative emotional states. Although ACE scores were not a direct determining factor in conspiracy theory beliefs, they can be used to reveal and better understand other maladaptive traits and the possibility of developing psychological disorders in the future. As this research was exploratory, future research will need to confirm these findings, ideally with a more diverse sample in age, race and educational background. Despite these limitations, the current study aids in our understanding about who may be more susceptible to engaging in conspiracy theory beliefs and can inform about possible interventions in the future.

Although the number of HIV infected peaked in the late 1980’s, HIV remains a major concern within the African American community (CDC, 2008). African Americans are disproportionately affected, comprising 14% of the U.S. population but representing 44% of new HIV infections in 2009 (CDC, 2011). It is vital to identify barriers to positive health behaviors like consistent condom use and HIV testing. This study focus on factors impacting attitudes towards HIV testing, including mistrust of the healthcare system, measured by support for HIV conspiracy theories (Thomas & Quinn, 1991). It also examined the prevalence of HIV conspiracy beliefs among African American college students, along with their perceptions of racism. The first goal of this study was to determine if perceived racism and HIV conspiracy theories are predictors of HIV testing attitudes. The second goal was to examine if perceived racism moderates the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and HIV testing attitudes. The findings indicated that higher levels of HIV conspiracy beliefs were associated with more negative attitudes towards HIV testing. The association between perceived racism and testing attitudes was marginally significant, while the interaction between perceived racism and testing was not significant. Implications for research and HIV interventions are discussed.

The 2016 American presidential election sent shockwaves through the world. Hillary Clinton the candidate that most experts predicted where going to win was beaten by a boisterous real estate developer from New York, Donald Trump. The language employed by president Trump both during and after his presidential campaign has been highly controversial, especially with the allusion to different forms of conspiracy theories. This essay investigates how Donald Trump alludes to conspiracy theories in relation to the Mueller investigation.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the terrorist attacks of 9/11 are two events that scarred America and its people. In the aftermath of the assassination and the terrorist attacks, the American public was forced to sift through competing messages existing in the public sphere in order to make meaning out of the events. Although the American government, within a few days of both events, released who was ultimately responsible (Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy and Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were responsible for 9/11), the people were still left with coming to terms for why such violence occurred. In order to provide a frame from which the American people could view and understand the assassination and the terrorist attacks, two blue ribbon commissions were formed: the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President Kennedy and the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the terrorist attacks. Despite the reports’ purposes, significant segments of the population questioned both Commissions’ conclusions. In both instances, conspiratorial understandings of the events grew after the publication of the reports so that, in the case of the Warren Commission, most of the American public believe Oswald did not act alone and, in the case of the 9/11 Commission, there is growing belief that the government’s failure to predict and prevent the terrorist attacks was the result of a governmental conspiracy. This dissertation seeks to understand why, in our current times, official discourses are unable to prevail over conspiracy theories. This study proposes to illustrate the power of conspiracy discourse by examining it through the lens of official discourses that were designed, in part, to head-off conspiracy beliefs before they gained momentum within the American public. Such an inquiry will provide three main benefits: it will contribute to a more exacting understanding of the rhetorical power of conspiracy arguments in our times; it will provide insight into the relationship between official and conspiracy discourses (especially as they now exist); and, such a study has implications for determining the current direction of political life.

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This thesis is an examination of "paranoid conspiracy" films, a film noir subgenre that emerged in mainstream American cinema in the early 1970s and turns on vast, shadowy conspiracies located within U.S. "power structures" (government agencies, the military, the media) and directed against the American public. Specifically, it focuses on the emergence of these films in the 1970s, their almost complete disappearance during the Reagan presidency, and subsequent reemergence in the early 1990s. Placing representative texts in the context of U.S. political and social reality of the last three decades, it analyzes the relationship between the conspiracy theory genre, the "crisis of confidence" in the American society, and the process of formation of American national identity.

Antisemitism is a word connected with the rise of the Third Reich during the 30s and 40s in Europe. But it is still very relevant today with alt-right movements growing and becoming stronger. This essay aims to show how the growing alt-right movements in Sweden expresses their antisemitic ideologies. Studies has shown that antisemitism has become stronger and more spread across Europe and Sweden. This essay will explain different scenarios from the past two years, which are connected to antisemitism in Sweden. These scenarios will later be analysed through different methods. Examples from alt-right websites and twitter accounts will also be presented to contribute to a thorough analysis. Later a parallel will be drawn between the scenarios and the ideologies of the Third Reich.

This thesis attempts to understand and conceptualize the contemporary popularity of conspiracy theories. While doing this, conspiracy theories are approached as symptoms of current society. Moreover, the issue of what peculiar characteristics of contemporary society are responsible from conspiracy theories has been discussed. Heretofore, the concept of conspiracy theory is defined and its dangerous traits such as, being anti-scientific knowledge types and their ability to be used by fundamentalist ideologies, have been elaborated. In this regard, the success of conspiracy theories is associated with a crisis of modern ideals of society. In this context, Karl Popper&rsquo / s &ldquo / Open Society&rdquo / ideal and his scientific methodology was updated and stressed upon to widen the discussion on conspiracy theories with the reason that Popperian logic offer crucial solutions about widespread conspiracy theories. Lastly, and in parallel to Popper&rsquo / s deductive logic, the arguments about the reasons of conspiracy theories are tested within the context of two different discussions. First, a discussion on Turkish cultural transformation after 1980s was made in order to understand whether the symptoms which were held responsible from popularity of conspiracy theories are applicable and observable in the Turkish case or not. As a second part, the analysis of a book Efendi, which is a popular conspiracy theory in Turkey will be discussed. In consequence, conspiracy theories and conspirational thinking are presented as important and dangerous symptoms of current society, whose reasons should be understood and conceptualized for the sake of peace and democracy.

Dans cette thèse, nous défendons l'idée que la motivation à se distinguer d'autrui (et plus précisément, le besoin d'unicité) pourrait favoriser l'adoption et l'augmentation des croyances aux théories du complot. Cette relation s'expliquerait par le fait que les individus ayant un fort besoin d'unicité auraient davantage tendance à être attirés par ce qui rare ou inaccessible, et nous argumentons que c'est justement ce qui caractérise les récits conspirationnistes (e.g., impression de détenir des informations secrètes). Nous présenterons 12 études ayant pour but de tester empiriquement cette hypothèse.Parmi les principaux résultats, nous avons montré que les individus disposant d'un niveau de croyances aux théories du complot supérieur à la moyenne pensent avoir un niveau de croyances à ces théories supérieur à celui attribué aux autres (Etudes 4, 5 et 6), ce qui correspond à un prérequis nécessaire à la formulation de notre hypothèse. Nous avons ensuite mis en évidence que plus les personnes possèdent un fort besoin d'unicité, plus elles croient aux théories du complot (Etude 8). Conformément à notre hypothèse, nous avons également démontré que les personnes qui croient aux théories du complot ont plus tendance à penser détenir des informations rares et secrètes à propos de divers complots (Etude 9). Une méta-analyse conduite sur deux études testant le rôle causal du besoin d'unicité sur les croyances aux théories du complot (Etudes 11 et 12) suggère enfin qu'une hausse situationnelle du besoin d'unicité favoriserait la formation des croyances aux théories du complot.Dans l'ensemble, il semblerait donc que le besoin d'unicité intervienne dans l'adoption des croyances aux théories du complot, même si cet effet semble de taille relativement modeste. En conclusion, cette thèse fait partie des rares travaux soulignant le rôle des explications motivationnelles dans l'adhésion aux théories du complot. / In this thesis, we argue that the desire to be different from others (i.e., the need for uniqueness) would foster the adoption and increase of conspiracy beliefs. This relationship may be due to the fact that people with high need for uniqueness are more likely to be attracted by what is scarce and unavailable. We argue that scarcity and unavailability specifically characterizes conspiracy narratives (e.g., the conviction to hold secret information). We present 12 studies testing empirically this hypothesis.Among our main results, we show that people with high level of beliefs in conspiracy theories think that they have a higher level of beliefs in these theories compared to others (Studies 4, 5 and 6), that is a necessary prerequisite to our hypothesis. Then, we highlighted that people with a high need for uniqueness believe more in conspiracy theories (Study 8). According to our hypothesis, we also demonstrate that high believers in conspiracy theories are more likely to think that they possess secret information about various conspiracies (Study 9). A meta-analysis conducted on two studies testing the causal role of need for uniqueness on conspiracy beliefs (Studies 11 and 12) suggests that a situation in which need for uniqueness is enhanced increases people's conspiracy beliefs.Taken together, these studies suggest that the need for uniqueness plays a role in the endorsement of conspiracy theories, although the effect size seems relatively modest. To conclude, this thesis is one of the few works devoted to exploring the role of motivational explanations for conspiracy beliefs.