Victims of Conspiracies? An Examination of the Relationship Between Conspiracy Beliefs and Dispositional Individual Victimhood

TISP conspiracy group

doi:10.1002/ejsp.70008

Victims of Conspiracies? An Examination of the Relationship Between Conspiracy Beliefs and Dispositional Individual Victimhood

TISP conspiracy group

Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology

Publications: Contribution to journal › Article › Peer Reviewed

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.

Original language	English
Article number	55
Pages (from-to)	1252-1269
Number of pages	18
Journal	European Journal of Social Psychology
Volume	55
Issue number	7
Early online date	17 Jul 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.70008
Publication status	Published - Dec 2025

Funding

: This work was supported by the following funders: European Research Council Advanced grant 101018262 (K.M.D.), Swiss National Science Foundation Postdoc Mobility Fellowship (P500PS_202935) (V.C.), Beasiswa Pendidikan Indonesia Kemendikbudristek–LPDP provided by Balai Pembiayaan Pendidikan Tinggi (BPPT) and LPDP Indonesia (I.A.), Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield (I.A., H.C.G.), John Templeton Foundation grant #61378 (M.A.), Australian Research Council grant DP190101507 (M.A.), Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga (D.A.), German Research Foundation grant BE 3970/12‐1 (C.B.), SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities (O.B., M.P.), Jagiellonian University (G.C., E.S.), COVID‐19 Rapid Response grant from the University of Vienna (K.D., C.L., J.P.N., E.P., B.T.), Austrian Science Fund grant FWF, I3381, W1262 (K.D., C.L., J.P.N., E.P., B.T.), HSE University Basic Research Program (D.D., A.G., D.G., E.K.), University of Lodz (M.D., I.W.), USAID (M.F.), Aarhus University Research Foundation grant AUFF‐E‐2019‐9‐13 (A.F.B., S.F., P.M.), Australian Research Council grant DP190101675 (O.G.), Conacyt grant A1S9013 (C.G.B., A.C.H.M.), University of Bamberg (S.J., S.J.M.), Nicolaus Copernicus University (D.J., A.D.W.), Australian Research Council grant DP180102384 (N.L., R.M.R.), John Templeton Foundation grant #62631 (N.L., R.M.R.), School of Psychology and Public Health Internal Grant Scheme 2022 (M.D.M.), University of Silesia (M.P.C., K.P.B.), The São Paulo Research Foundation–FAPESP grant 2019/26665‐5 (G.R.), European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program grant 964728 (JITSUVAX) (P.S.) and School of Medicine and Psychology, The Australian National University (S.K.S). Funding

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
SDG 13 Climate Action
SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

501001 General psychology
501021 Social psychology

Keywords

conspiracy beliefs
conspiracy theories
victim justice sensitivity
victimhood

Access to Document

10.1002/ejsp.70008Licence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

@article{6eb7812fdce1441280aae8d653aa507e,

title = "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.",

keywords = "conspiracy beliefs, conspiracy theories, victim justice sensitivity, victimhood",

author = "\{TISP conspiracy group\} and Daniel Toribio-Fl{\'o}rez and Altenm{\"u}ller, \{Marlene S.\} and Douglas, \{Karen M.\} and Mario Gollwitzer and Indro Adinugroho and Mark Alfano and Denisa Apriliawati and Flavio Azevedo and Cornelia Betsch and Olga Bia{\l}obrzeska and Am{\'e}lie Bret and Valdez, \{Andr{\'e} Calero\} and Viktoria Cologna and Gabriela Czarnek and Sylvain Delouv{\'e}e and Doell, \{Kimberly C.\} and Simone Dohle and Dmitrii Dubrov and Ma{\l}gorzata Dzimi{\'n}ska and Elbaek, \{Christian T.\} and Matthew Facciani and Antoinette Fage-Butler and Marinus Ferreira and Malte Friese and Simon Fuglsang and Albina Gallyamova and Patricia Garrido-V{\'a}squez and V{\'a}squez, \{Mauricio E.Garrido\} and Oliver Genschow and Omid Ghasemi and Theofilos Gkinopoulos and Brambila, \{Claudia Gonz{\'a}lez\} and Gordon, \{Hazel Clare\} and Dmitry Grigoryev and Hern{\'a}ndez-Mondrag{\'o}n, \{Alma Cristal\} and Tao Jin and Sebastian Jungkunz and Dominika Jurgiel and Kerr, \{John R.\} and Lilian Kojan and Elizaveta Komyaginskaya and Claus Lamm and L{\'e}gal, \{Jean Baptiste\} and Neil Levy and Marques, \{Mathew D.\} and Mayer, \{Sabrina J.\} and Nitschke, \{Jonas P.\} and Ekaterina Pronizius and Philipp Schmid and Boryana Todorova",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 The Author(s). European Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley \& Sons Ltd.",

year = "2025",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1002/ejsp.70008",

language = "English",

volume = "55",

pages = "1252--1269",

journal = "European Journal of Social Psychology",

issn = "0046-2772",

number = "7",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Victims of Conspiracies? An Examination of the Relationship Between Conspiracy Beliefs and Dispositional Individual Victimhood

AU - TISP conspiracy group

AU - Toribio-Flórez, Daniel

AU - Altenmüller, Marlene S.

AU - Douglas, Karen M.

AU - Gollwitzer, Mario

AU - Adinugroho, Indro

AU - Alfano, Mark

AU - Apriliawati, Denisa

AU - Azevedo, Flavio

AU - Betsch, Cornelia

AU - Białobrzeska, Olga

AU - Bret, Amélie

AU - Valdez, André Calero

AU - Cologna, Viktoria

AU - Czarnek, Gabriela

AU - Delouvée, Sylvain

AU - Doell, Kimberly C.

AU - Dohle, Simone

AU - Dubrov, Dmitrii

AU - Dzimińska, Małgorzata

AU - Elbaek, Christian T.

AU - Facciani, Matthew

AU - Fage-Butler, Antoinette

AU - Ferreira, Marinus

AU - Friese, Malte

AU - Fuglsang, Simon

AU - Gallyamova, Albina

AU - Garrido-Vásquez, Patricia

AU - Vásquez, Mauricio E.Garrido

AU - Genschow, Oliver

AU - Ghasemi, Omid

AU - Gkinopoulos, Theofilos

AU - Brambila, Claudia González

AU - Gordon, Hazel Clare

AU - Grigoryev, Dmitry

AU - Hernández-Mondragón, Alma Cristal

AU - Jin, Tao

AU - Jungkunz, Sebastian

AU - Jurgiel, Dominika

AU - Kerr, John R.

AU - Kojan, Lilian

AU - Komyaginskaya, Elizaveta

AU - Lamm, Claus

AU - Légal, Jean Baptiste

AU - Levy, Neil

AU - Marques, Mathew D.

AU - Mayer, Sabrina J.

AU - Nitschke, Jonas P.

AU - Pronizius, Ekaterina

AU - Schmid, Philipp

AU - Todorova, Boryana

PY - 2025/12

Y1 - 2025/12

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - conspiracy beliefs

KW - conspiracy theories

KW - victim justice sensitivity

KW - victimhood

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105011080948

U2 - 10.1002/ejsp.70008

DO - 10.1002/ejsp.70008

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105011080948

SN - 0046-2772

VL - 55

SP - 1252

EP - 1269

JO - European Journal of Social Psychology

JF - European Journal of Social Psychology

IS - 7

M1 - 55

ER -

Victims of Conspiracies? An Examination of the Relationship Between Conspiracy Beliefs and Dispositional Individual Victimhood

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

Keywords

Access to Document

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