Populism and Conspiracy in the COVID-19 Pandemic

This research project examines the relationship between populism and conspiracy theories in the context of the Corona pandemic. It is directly related to the perceived radicalization of a segment of the political and public spheres against scientists, particularly in the area of health and pandemic response. The research seeks to understand how populists fight for political advantage through the use of conspiracy theories and the consequences of doing so. It asks to what extent conspiracy claims are used, how they are constructed, and how effective they are. Specifically, the project focuses on the influence of parties and their leaders classified as radical right-wing populist in four selected countries-Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and France- because they have long-established and particularly successful right-wing populist parties. Using a mix of methods, the project first produces an extensive collection and analysis of relevant speeches and texts by key figures to determine the extent of and differences between conspiracy-related claims. This part of the research is led by the Swiss project partners at the University of Lausanne. The team at the University of Salzburg is dedicated to the attitudes of citizens and is primarily concerned with the effectiveness of specific conspiracy claims about COVID-19 and science more generally. In doing so, it clarifies which factors are particularly conducive to this development. For this purpose, original surveys will be fielded. These involve three types of so-called survey experiments. In these, randomly selected respondents (test group) are presented with various conspiracy theories as stimuli in a certain way, while other respondents (control group) are presented with neutral content. Subsequently, a statistical technique can be used to draw conclusions about why conspiracy theories become more entrenched in certain segments of the population by comparing the groups and referring to the other content asked about in the questionnaire. This technique was chosen to uncover respondents` opinions that would tend to remain hidden in a more direct form of questioning. The research project thus provides new scientific insights into populism, conspiracy theories, and health policy issues that are relevant not only to the social sciences but also to government agencies and the general public. The research not only highlights potential national and cultural differences, but will also help identify strategies to mitigate the impact of medical conspiracy theories.