Put on your tinfoil hats: New research finds that belief in conspiracy theories might be more common in the U.S. than you might think. A newly published survey conducted in the aftermath of the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump details how conspiracy theories spread on both sides of the political spectrum — and how many people were quick to become believers.
“A fair number of people heard about and believe these conspiracies,” says David Lazer, a university distinguished professor of political and computer science at Northeastern University and an author on the study. The survey was conducted as part of Lazer’s large-scale CHIP50 project very soon after the assassination attempt. As a result, it’s one of the best looks yet into how conspiracy theories spread, Lazer says.
Almost immediately after the assassination attempt, conspiracy theories about the shooter’s motive, political affiliation and backing from outside groups started spreading like wildfire on both sides of the political spectrum. “The ‘neat’ thing about this was … that we could anticipate that filling the vacuum would be conspiracies on both the left and the right,” Lazer says.
