Educated, Professional and Yet Still Conspiratorial: Comparative Explorations of Masculinities, Privilege, and Conspiracy Theories in Western Europe

The circulation of conspiracy theories is increasingly tied to eruptions of societal violence as well as a growing distrust in democratic processes and public institutions. While most scholarship and public discussions focus on the "losers" of globalization and multiculturalism, that is, "male, young, dropouts without work skills" who "resented" migrants and elites as the cause of their predicament, this project explores how more privileged groups, namely upper-middle class men, working as physicians, lawyers, and financial brokers in three western-democracies (Germany, Sweden, and the UK) circulate conspiracy theories--all despite their educational attainments and relatively well-off socioeconomic positions. The project directly tackles two main biases in scholarship: an epistemological bias focusing exclusively on the falsity of conspiracy theories without necessarily accounting for their appeal or the capacity of their circulation to produce concrete sociopolitical effects; and, secondly, a methodological-analytic bias, presuming that only marginalized individuals circulate these narratives because of a lack of knowledge or socioeconomic resources to cope with a fast-changing world. Challenging these assumptions that conspiracy theories are simply epistemological problems and belong solely to the "left-behind" margins of society with limited economic and social/cultural capital, the project asks a seemingly basic and yet structurally-significant question, "What happens when privileged, educated individuals circulate conspiracy theories?", to explore the destabilizations that democratic norms and processes face across a relatively prosperous region in the 21st century. Employing surveys and interviews, this interdisciplinary project will contribute to scholarly debates, propose new methodological pathways to "study up" privileged socialities, and suggest new strategies (beyond fact-checking) to counter the adverse effects of the circulation of conspiracy theories.