‘Need for Chaos’, ‘Motivated Sharing’ Are Why People Share Conspiracy Theories on Social Media, Study Finds

After controlling variables like age, education, religious beliefs, income, race and more, the study confirmed that the need for chaos was “positively associated” with the willingness to share conspiracy theories. Additionally, it found that people were more willing to share such content if they believed in the theory themselves.

“These findings contribute to our understanding of why people share conspiracy theories by suggesting that, whereas some individuals share specifically to impugn political rivals, others do so to challenge the entire political system,” Psypost reported the researchers as saying.

The study, however, has its own caveats. Researchers said that the sample was not nationally representative, and that the study was observational. Mentioning that it would be “unethical to experimentally induce chaotic motives,” they only studied existing human behaviour.

This, in turn, prevented them from conclusively determining causality between the motivation, belief systems and the action of sharing conspiracy theories on social media.