We examined how individuals who may be labelled ‘conspiracy theorists’ respond to discrimination against ‘conspiracy theorists’. In line with the Rejection-Identification Model (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 135, 1999), we hypothesized that perceived group-based discrimination against conspiracy theorists would strengthen identification with the ‘conspiracy theorist’ ingroup. We propose that this relationship might be mediated by meta-conspiracy beliefs, that is, the belief that the discrimination of conspiracy theorists is itself a conspiracy. Three studies (Ns = 97, 364, 747) among participants who had been labelled as ‘conspiracy theorist’ in the past (Studies 1 and 2) or who had been labelled as such at the beginning of the experiment (Study 3) revealed robust positive relationships between perceived discrimination of conspiracy theorists, meta conspiracy beliefs, and identification. Furthermore, in Studies 2 and 3, identification was strongly associated with positive intergroup differentiation and pride to be a conspiracy theorist. However, there was no evidence that a manipulation of discrimination with bogus public opinion polls affected ‘conspiracy theorist’ identification or meta-conspiracy beliefs. A Bayesian internal meta-analysis of the studies returned moderate (for group identification) to strong (for meta-conspiracy beliefs) support for the null hypothesis. In contrast, in Study 3, a manipulation of discrimination by powerholders enhanced both identification and meta-conspiracy beliefs. This suggests that the source of discrimination moderates the causal relationship between perceived discrimination of conspiracy theorists and group identification.

中文翻译：

---

“谁想让我们沉默”？当来自当权者时，对阴谋论信徒的感知歧视增加了“阴谋论者”的认同——但不是来自公众

我们研究了可能被贴上“阴谋论者”标签的个人如何应对对“阴谋论者”的歧视。根据拒绝识别模型（人格与社会心理学杂志，77，135，1999），我们假设对阴谋论者的基于群体的歧视会加强对“阴谋论者”内群体的认同。我们提出，这种关系可能是由元阴谋信念所介导的，即认为对阴谋论者的歧视本身就是一种阴谋的信念。三项研究（Ns = 97, 364, 747) 在过去被标记为“阴谋论者”（研究 1 和 2）或在实验开始时被标记为“阴谋论者”（研究 3）的参与者中显示出强烈的正相关关系对阴谋论者、元阴谋论和认同的歧视。此外，在研究 2 和 3 中，认同与积极的群体间差异和作为阴谋论者的自豪感密切相关。然而，没有证据表明通过虚假的民意调查操纵歧视会影响“阴谋论者”的认同或元阴谋论信念。对研究的贝叶斯内部荟萃分析返回了对零假设的中度（对于群体识别）到强（对于元阴谋信念）的支持。相反，在研究 3 中，掌权者对歧视的操纵增强了身份认同和元阴谋信念。这表明歧视的来源调节了阴谋论者的感知歧视与群体认同之间的因果关系。