From crisis to war

Conspiracy narratives about the war of aggression against Ukraine in society

Release date: May 5, 2022
Authors: Pia Lamberty, Maheba Goedeke Tort, Corinne Heuer (CEMAS)

In the research paper “From crisis to war: Conspiracy narratives about the war of aggression against Ukraine in society” we address the question of the extent to which Russian disinformation and conspiracy narratives surrounding the war of aggression are caught up in the general population. For this purpose, data was collected from a representative sample of the German population that provides information about who agrees with conspiracy stories about the war in Ukraine and who is more immune to this propaganda.

The pleasing overall result makes it clear that a large part of the German population is hostile to conspiracy-ideological statements in the context of war. Nevertheless, our data shows approval ratings and connections that need to be examined more closely: One in seven people (14.5 percent) believed that Putin was being made a scapegoat in order to distract from the real problems or that Western media could no longer be trusted when they reported on the war in Ukraine (13.7 percent).

The data on the willingness to protest and the media usage behavior of the respondents are also noteworthy: The results show that 56 percent of people with a high willingness to protest (more likely) believed in conspiracy stories about the war against Ukraine, compared to people with a low willingness to protest, among whom there were 8. 6 percent suspected a conspiracy behind the war.

Conspiracy narrative surrounding the war against Ukraine: Sociodemographic profiles

Screenshot: CeMAS/population-representative survey for Germany from April 1st to 12th, 2022 / N = 1925
Screenshot: CeMAS/population-representative survey for Germany from April 1st to 12th, 2022 / N = 1925

Once again we were able to determine a connection with the acquisition of information, particularly via Telegram. Almost 27 percent of people with a strong belief in conspiracy used Telegram daily or several times a week to obtain information, while only 6.3 percent with low agreement with conspiracy stories used Telegram as a frequent source of information.

The CeMAS research paper shows once again: The so-called Corona protests were less about criticism of the state's corona protection measures, but rather about anti-democratic efforts, which also include the trivialization of Russian war crimes and the spread of Russian propaganda. This should also be a warning for the future: Even if this war will be over at some point, conspiracy ideologists and right-wing extremists could use future crises to further agitate and attempt to divide society.

Further articles about the Ukraine war can be found here.


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )