Conspiracy Belief Among the UK Public and the Role of Alternative Media

As many as one in three people in the UK say conspiracies often promoted by some alternative media sources are true, including the “great replacement theory” – which suggests white people are being replaced by non-white immigrants – as well as claims that the cost of living crisis is a government plot to control the public, that “15-minute cities” are intended to keep people under surveillance, and that central bank digital currencies will be used to restrict people’s freedom. This report by King’s College London for the new BBC Radio 4 podcast Marianna in Conspiracyland, also highlights the potential real-world impacts of such misinformation, finding that up to one in four people say they have either taken part in, or would be prepared to take part in, direct action on issues often linked to conspiracy theories. These include protesting against a “deep state”, 15-minute cities, vaccines and the introduction of central bank digital currencies, with up to one in seven going as far as saying violence could be justified in such circumstances, and men twice as likely as women to say they would protest against these issues. And with concerns that the pandemic has fuelled conspiracy belief in the UK, one in three (33%) say they are now less likely to believe official information because of how government and the media behaved during Covid – almost double the proportion who say the opposite (18%).