Conspiracy beliefs are not just generated by “under-the-skull” individual factors, but are shaped also by cultural, economic, and institutional realities. A scan of the literature—complemented by our own secondary data analyses—suggests a reasonable convergence of evidence that conspiracy beliefs are higher in nations that are more corrupt, more collectivist, and lower in GDP per capita. There is some evidence that conspiracy beliefs may also be shaped by economic inequality, power distance, and authoritarianism, although the evidence base is thin. We also review literature that examines how individual correlates of conspiracy beliefs vary across nations. We discuss challenges associated with conducting international research on conspiracy beliefs and chart a future research agenda for creating truly global insights into conspiracist thinking.

阴谋信仰不仅是由“潜藏”的个人因素产生的，而且还受到文化、经济和制度现实的影响。对文献的浏览——加上我们自己的二手数据分析——表明了合理的证据趋同性，即在腐败程度更高、集体主义程度更高、人均国内生产总值更低的国家，阴谋论信念更高。有一些证据表明，阴谋论信念也可能受到经济不平等、权力距离和威权主义的影响，尽管证据基础很薄弱。我们还回顾了一些文献，这些文献研究了不同国家阴谋信仰的个体相关性如何变化。我们讨论了对阴谋信仰进行国际研究所面临的挑战，并制定了未来的研究议程，以创造对阴谋主义思维的真正全球性见解。