Allington, Daniel; Hirsh, David and Katz, Louise. 2023. The Relationship Between Antisemitic Attitudes and Conspiracy Beliefs: A Cross-Sectional Study of UK-Resident Adults. Contemporary Jewry, 43(3-4), pp. 633-660. ISSN 0147-1694 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

This cross-sectional study follows Open Science principles in estimating relationships between antisemitism, i.e. anti-Jewish bigotry, and conspiracy belief, i.e. endorsement of conspiracy theories, through analysis of data collected from a representative sample of UK adults (n = 1722). Antisemitism was measured using the Generalized Antisemitism scale, and conspiracy belief was measured using the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs scale. Positive relationships were found to exist between all forms of antisemitism and all types of conspiracy belief, and an average across all items of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs scale was found to predict Generalized Antisemitism at least as well as any individual type of conspiracy belief. On a more detailed level, antisemitic attitudes relating to British Jews were found to be most strongly associated with belief in conspiracies relating to personal wellbeing, while antisemitic attitudes relating to the State of Israel and its supporters were found to be most strongly associated with belief in conspiracies relating to government malfeasance. Generalized Antisemitism itself was found to be most strongly associated with belief in malevolent global conspiracies.

Exploratory analysis additionally examined the effect of standard demographic variables that had been introduced into the main analysis as controls. Through this means, it was found that antisemitic attitudes relating both to Jews qua Jews and to Israel and its supporters are more prevalent among less highly-educated people and members of other-than-white ethnic groups, while antisemitic attitudes relating to Israel and its supporters are more common among younger people. In addition, it was found that female gender is associated with reduced antisemitic attitudes relating to Jews qua Jews and also with increased antisemitic attitudes relating to Israel and its supporters. However, the addition of demographic controls did not explain any additional variance in Generalised Antisemitism beyond that which was already explained by conspiracy belief — perhaps suggesting that demographic characteristics are more strongly associated with the inclination towards particular expressions of antisemitism than with antisemitism itself.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1007/s12397-023-09518-6/
Additional Information:	Funding: Data collection was funded by Campaign Against Antisemitism and from the lead author’s personal research allowance at King’s College London.
Data Access Statement:	The dataset created and analysed as part of the current study will be deposited in the Open Science Framework repository on publication (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/67UR2). A private copy of the dataset was provided to the peer reviewers at the time of submission. Code Availability The R code necessary to replicate all analyses presented in this article will be deposited in the Open Science Framework repository on publication (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/67UR2). A private copy of the code was provided to peer reviewers at the time of submission.
Keywords:	Antisemitism, Antizionism, Conspiracism, Conspiracy belief, Conspiracy theory
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Sociology
Dates:	Date Event 3 September 2023 Accepted 22 November 2023 Published Online December 2023 Published
Item ID:	34262
Date Deposited:	27 Oct 2023 08:40
Last Modified:	17 May 2024 03:45
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/34262

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