Although labeling an idea a "conspiracy theory" has not been found to impact the believability of that idea, there may be more negative connotations associated with individuals who believe in conspiracies than there are for the theories themselves.

Pepperdine University

Wood (2016) conducted two different studies to determine if labeling something as a conspiracy theory makes it less believable. Both studies found that labeling something as a conspiracy theory did not impact how likely one was to believe it.

The impact of labeling something a "conspiracy theory"

Wood, M.J. (2016). Some dare call it conspiracy: Labeling something a conspiracy theory does not reduce belief in it. Political Psychology, 37(5), 695-705. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12285.

Some Dare Call It Conspiracy: Labeling Something a Conspiracy Theory Does Not Reduce Belief in It

Participants were presented with items from the GCB scale as well as examples of real conspiracies from history. The participants in the experimental group were then asked to rate how believable each "conspiracy theory was". In the control group participants were asked the same question but the term "conspiracy theory" was replaced with the word "idea". The difference of the label did not appear to alter how believable participants found each statement.

"Conspiracy Theory" VS "Idea" believability experiment 

All participants were shown the same fake news article about a supposed political scandal in Canada. Above this fake article, the experimental group saw a headline that read "Conspiracy Theories Emerge in Wake of Canadian Election Result", while the control group participants were shown a similar headline but with the term "conspiracy theory replaced with "corruption allegations". All participants were then asked to rate how much they believed the allegations described in the article. The differing headlines did not appear to impact how likely one was to believe the article.

"Conspiracy Theory" VS “Corruption Allegations” believability experiment

Is labeling a person "a conspiracy theorist" an effective way to negatively shape how others view that person?

1. If an individual has already fully formed an opinion about a particular conspiracy, how it is labeled is unlikely to change that opinion.

2. Positive  dipictions of conspiracies in popular media may make "conspiracy theory " an ambivilant label. rather an a negative one.

3. Individuals may categorize information independantly of how others label it.

4. The "conspiracy theory" label may have been over used in recent years and now lacks potency. 

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