New Research: White Evangelicals are the Most Likely to Believe Conspiracy Theories

In May we highlighted research demonstrating that individuals with lower levels of education were more likely to believe common conspiracy theories. Two new surveys have found that belief in such theories is also tied to religiosity, with white evangelical Protestants much more likely to believe in even the most absurd conspiracies.

A recent Economist/YouGov. survey found that almost 70% of white evangelicals believe former President Donald Trump's various lies about "millions of illegal votes" being cast during the 2020 election compared to about a quarter of the general population. Evangelicals are also more inclined to believe that the government is using the Covid vaccines to microchip Americans and that other vaccines cause autism in children.

The Economist's results closely mirror findings from a recent poll conducted by the Survey Center For American Life. In that January poll, 74% of white evangelical Republicans believed that there was "widespread fraud in the 2020 election." 67% of the same group said they bought into Trump's "deep state" nonsense, 60% believed that "Antifa" was actually behind the 1/6 attack on the Capital, and 31% seem to accept the conspiracies associated with QAnon.

Another recent survey explains why such beliefs impact all of us. This same group, white evangelical Protestants, are also the group least likely to say that they will get the Covid 19 vaccine that is the key to defeating the virus and ending the pandemic for all Americans.

Forbes: "Republicans who are white evangelical Protestants were more likely to be against the vaccine than those of other religions, with 55% accepting the vaccine versus 67% from other religions, while 24% of evangelicals refused the shot and 21% are hesitant about it (versus 16% and 17% for other religions, respectively)."

If there is a silver lining to this, it's that the number of evangelicals refusing to be vaccinated seems to be declining a bit as infections and deaths have been increasing, especially in Southern states like Texas and Florida.

#culture #news #research #religion #politics

By: Don Lam & Curated Content