Can brands grow like conspiracy theories spread? Studying attitudes toward advertising and conspiracy beliefs
Podemos desenvolver as marcas da mesma forma que as Teorias da Conspiração? Estudando a relação entre atitude perante a publicidade e crenças conspirativas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34140/bjbv4n4-063Palavras-chave:
conspiracy theories, marketing, advertising, social networksResumo
In a world where brands find increasing difficulties to communicate their message, in part due to the splitting consumer’s attention and in part due to the difficulty in having consumers believe their messages, we also notice everyday growth of conspiracy theories in many fields (politics, health, social relations, …) who seem to thrive and find it easier than ever to enter people’s lives and gather believers.
Can marketing learn something from the success of major conspiracy theories and their facility in reaching people’s attention and earning their trust? Should it?
Should marketing fear the success of conspiracy theories as they seem to result from decentralized and uncontrolled forms of communication and tribe creation?
This paper sets out to acquire lessons from the success of Conspiracy Theories (CTs) that can be applied by SMEs and startups. For that purpose, a survey was used to collect primary data, using constructs that measure people’s conspiracy tendencies (generic conspiracy beliefs scale), their attitude toward advertising and their personality profile (Big Five Inventory – BFI).
The data gathered was used to look for correlations. Are people with the more positive view of advertising more prone to believe in CTs? Is there some relation between BFI’s personality profiles and CT belief or negativistic views of advertising? Is there some relation between the information sources people prefer and their tendency to adopt conspiracy beliefs and/or more positive attitudes towards advertising?
The results show a clear positive correlation between peoples’ conspiracy belief tendencies and their attitude towards ads. Conspiracy beliefs were modelled as a result of attitude towards ads, age, social class and belief in popular myths.
These results provided hints for startups/SMEs marketing strategies, by suggesting that larger advertising budgets can be fought with strategies based on different communication channels (surely social networks) and messages centered on the most common script for conspiracy theories, “big corporations / big brother doesn’t want you to know this”.
Referências
Adam-Troian, J. et al. (2020) ‘Investigating the Links Between Cultural Values and Belief in Conspiracy Theories: The Key Roles of Collectivism and Masculinity’, Political Psychology. doi: 10.1111/pops.12716.
Adler, N. E. et al. (2000) ‘Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy white women’, Health Psychology, 19(6), pp. 586–592. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.19.6.586.
Agley, J. and Xiao, Y. (2021) ‘Misinformation about COVID-19: evidence for differential latent profiles and a strong association with trust in science’, BMC Public Health, 21(1). doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-10103-x.
Allington, D., Buarque, B. L. and Barker Flores, D. (2021) ‘Antisemitic conspiracy fantasy in the age of digital media: Three “conspiracy theorists” and their YouTube audiences’, Language and Literature, 30(1), pp. 78–102. doi: 10.1177/0963947020971997.
Almeida, D., Brito-costa, S. and Bem-haja, P. (2015) ‘Redalyc.PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF PORTUGUESE VERSION OF BIG FIVE INVENTORY (BFI)’.
Baden, C. and Sharon, T. (2021) ‘BLINDED BY THE LIES? Toward an integrated definition of conspiracy theories’, Communication Theory, 31(1), pp. 82–106. doi: 10.1093/ct/qtaa023.
Brito Costa, S. et al. (2016) ‘Psychometric Properties of Portuguese Version of Big Five Inventory (Bfi)’, International Journal of Developmental and Educational Psychology. Revista INFAD de Psicología., 1(2), p. 83. doi: 10.17060/ijodaep.2015.n2.v1.325.
Brotherton, R., French, C. C. and Pickering, A. D. (2013) ‘Measuring belief in conspiracy theories: The generic conspiracist beliefs scale’, Frontiers in Psychology, 4(MAY), pp. 1–15. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00279.
Casarões, G. and Magalhães, D. (2021) ‘The hydroxychloroquine alliance: how far-right leaders and alt-science preachers came together to promote a miracle drug’, Revista de Administração Pública, 55(1), pp. 197–214. doi: 10.1590/0034-761220200556.
Cassese, E. C., Farhart, C. E. and Miller, J. M. (2020) ‘Gender Differences in COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory Beliefs’, Politics & Gender, 16(4), pp. 1009–1018. doi: 10.1017/s1743923x20000409.
Castanho Silva, B., Vegetti, F. and Littvay, L. (2017) ‘The Elite Is Up to Something: Exploring the Relation Between Populism and Belief in Conspiracy Theories’, Swiss Political Science Review, 23(4), pp. 423–443. doi: 10.1111/spsr.12270.
Chetty, P. (2015) Correlation of variables in SPSS, [online] Project Guru. Available at: https://www.projectguru.in/correlation-variables-spss/ (Accessed: 17 August 2022).
Drinkwater, K. G. et al. (2020) ‘Psychometric assessment of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale’, PLoS ONE, 15(3), pp. 1–19. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230365.
Duplaga, M. (2020) ‘The determinants of conspiracy beliefs related to the COVID-19 pandemic in a nationally representative sample of internet users’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(21), pp. 1–18. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17217818.
Dyrendal, A., Kennair, L. E. O. and Bendixen, M. (2021) ‘Predictors of belief in conspiracy theory: The role of individual differences in schizotypal traits, paranormal beliefs, social dominance orientation, right wing authoritarianism and conspiracy mentality’, Personality and Individual Differences, 173. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110645.
Earnshaw, V. A. et al. (2020) ‘COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs, health behaviors, and policy support’, Translational Behavioral Medicine, 10(4), pp. 850–856. doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibaa090.
Enders, A. M. and Smallpage, S. M. (2019) ‘Who Are Conspiracy Theorists? A Comprehensive Approach to Explaining Conspiracy Beliefs’, Social Science Quarterly, 100(6), pp. 2017–2032. doi: 10.1111/ssqu.12711.
Freelon, D., Marwick, A. and Kreiss, D. (2020) ‘False equivalencies: Online activism from left to right’, Science, pp. 1197–1201. doi: 10.1126/SCIENCE.ABB2428.
Furnham, A. (2021) ‘Just world beliefs, personal success and beliefs in conspiracy theories’, Current Psychology. doi: 10.1007/s12144-021-01576-z.
Georgiou, N., Delfabbro, P. and Balzan, R. (2019) ‘Conspiracy beliefs in the general population: The importance of psychopathology, cognitive style and educational attainment’, Personality and Individual Differences, 151. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2019.109521.
Germani, F. and Biller-Andorno, N. (2020) ‘The anti-vaccination infodemic on social media: A behavioral analysis’, medRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2020.12.07.20223370.
Hornsey, M. J. et al. (2021) ‘To what extent are conspiracy theorists concerned for self versus others? A COVID‐19 test case’, European Journal of Social Psychology. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2737.
Hughes, S. and Machan, L. (2021) ‘It’s a conspiracy: Covid-19 conspiracies link to psychopathy, Machiavellianism and collective narcissism’, Personality and Individual Differences, 171. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.110559.
Kay, C. S. (2021) ‘Actors of the most fiendish character: Explaining the associations between the Dark Tetrad and conspiracist ideation’, Personality and Individual Differences, 171. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2020.110543.
Kim, Seoyong and Kim, Sunhee (2021) ‘Searching for general model of conspiracy theories and its implication for public health policy: Analysis of the impacts of political, psychological, structural factors on conspiracy beliefs about the covid-19 pandemic’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(1), pp. 1–28. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18010266.
Ling, K. C., Piew, T. H. and Chai, L. T. (2010) ‘The Determinants of Consumers’ Attitude Towards Advertising’, Canadian Social Science, 6(4), pp. 114–126. Available at: http://cscanada.net/index.php/css/article/view/1409/0.
Maftei, A. and Holman, A. C. (2020) ‘Beliefs in conspiracy theories, intolerance of uncertainty, and moral disengagement during the coronavirus crisis’, Ethics and Behavior. doi: 10.1080/10508422.2020.1843171.
Majima, Y. and Nakamura, H. (2020) ‘Development of the Japanese Version of the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS-J)’, Japanese Psychological Research, 62(4), pp. 254–267. doi: 10.1111/jpr.12267.
Mao, J. Y., Yang, S. L. and Guo, Y. Y. (2020) ‘Are individuals from lower social classes more susceptible to conspiracy theories? An explanation from the compensatory control theory’, Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 23(4), pp. 372–383. doi: 10.1111/ajsp.12417.
March, E. and Springer (2019) ‘Belief in conspiracy theories: The predictive role of schizotypy, Machiavellianism, and primary psychopathy’, PLoS ONE, 14(12), pp. 1–10. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225964.
Morone, J. A. (2020) ‘A Discussion of Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum’s A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy’, Perspectives on Politics, pp. 1150–1151. doi: 10.1017/S1537592720003527.
Narang, D. and Chetty, P. (2015) Linear regression analysis using SPSS., [online] Project Guru. Available at: https://www.projectguru.in/linear-regression-analysis/ (Accessed: 17 August 2022).
Phadke, S., Samory, M. and Mitra, T. (2020) ‘What makes people join conspiracy communities?: role of social factors in Conspiracy Engagement’, arXiv, 37(4).
Pierre, J. M. (2020) ‘Mistrust and misinformation: A two-component, socio-epistemic model of belief in conspiracy theories’, Journal of Social and Political Psychology. PsychOpen, a publishing service by Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information (ZPID), Trier, Germany (www.leibniz-psychology.org)., 8(2), pp. 617–641. doi: 10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1362.
Prichard, E. C. and Christman, S. D. (2020) ‘Authoritarianism, Conspiracy Beliefs, Gender and COVID-19: Links Between Individual Differences and Concern About COVID-19, Mask Wearing Behaviors, and the Tendency to Blame China for the Virus’, Frontiers in Psychology, 11. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.597671.
Pytlik, N., Soll, D. and Mehl, S. (2020) ‘Thinking Preferences and Conspiracy Belief: Intuitive Thinking and the Jumping to Conclusions-Bias as a Basis for the Belief in Conspiracy Theories’, Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.568942.
Romer, D. and Jamieson, K. H. (2020) ‘Conspiracy theories as barriers to controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S.’, Social Science and Medicine. Elsevier Ltd, 263, p. 113356. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113356.
Roozenbeek, J. et al. (2020) ‘Susceptibility to misinformation about COVID-19 around the world: Susceptibility to COVID misinformation’, Royal Society Open Science, 7(10). doi: 10.1098/rsos.201199.
Simões, V. (2016) ‘Adaptação e Validação do teste de personalidade Mini-IPIP e Big Five Inventory (BFI) em adultos portugueses’, p. 66.
Šteˇtka, V., Mazák, J. and Vochocová, L. (2020) ‘“Nobody Tells us What to Write about”: the Disinformation Media Ecosystem and Its Consumers in the Czech Republic’, Javnost. doi: 10.1080/13183222.2020.1841381.
Stoica, C. A. and Umbreș, R. (2021) ‘Suspicious minds in times of crisis: determinants of Romanians’ beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories’, European Societies, 23(S1), pp. S246–S261. doi: 10.1080/14616696.2020.1823450.
Sulwen, T. (2018) ‘Development of a 40-item Questionnaire based on the BFI’, (June 2017). doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.32279.83363.
Troubé, S. (2020) ‘Can clinical psychopathology help us understand conspiracy theories? Three clinical ways to represent a collective imaginary’, Annales Medico-Psychologiques, (xxxx). doi: 10.1016/j.amp.2020.11.006.
Walter, A. S. and Drochon, H. (2020) ‘Conspiracy Thinking in Europe and America: A Comparative Study’, Political Studies. doi: 10.1177/0032321720972616.
