Seventy-nine per cent of Canadian respondents believed not less than one of many conspiracy theories proven to them in a latest ballot, in comparison with 84 per cent of Americans supplied with the identical checklist of 15 fictitious or unsubstantiated tales.
Commissioned by The Canadian Press, Leger surveyed 1,529 Canadians and 1,001 Americans throughout the nation between Nov. 24 and 26, with outcomes weighted to make sure a consultant pattern of every inhabitants.
In Canada, 55 per cent of respondents believed mainstream media manipulates data, whereas 36 per cent believed that John F. Kennedy’s assassination was a coverup. Thirty-four per cent of these polled purchased into theories that the automotive crash that killed Princess Diana in 1997 was an assassination, and that scientists have discovered a remedy for most cancers however the authorities and pharmaceutical corporations received’t launch it.
Another 33 per cent believed proof of alien contact is being hidden from the general public and 32 per cent subscribed to the concept that COVID-19 was created as a organic weapon in a lab.

The least-believed conspiracy concept — at 5 per cent of respondents — was that the Earth is flat, adopted by 11 per cent of Canadians who believed the lunar landings are a hoax.
The ballot additionally requested Canadians about their voting intentions, discovering that Conservative-minded voters are the most probably group to imagine a number of conspiracy theories at 87 per cent. In the U.S., that quantity jumps 94 per cent amongst those that recognized as Republican, and 96 per cent amongst those that mentioned they’d vote for Donald Trump in 2024.
In whole, 17 per cent of Canadians believed the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from Trump, whereas 16 per cent believed the 9/11 terrorist assaults that killed practically 3,000 folks had been deliberate by the federal government. While buy-in was lower than 30 per cent, Albertans are the most probably to imagine each the previous and latter theories, whereas Ontarians and Quebecers, respectively, had been the least seemingly.
The proportion of people that imagine every of the 15 theories is greater within the U.S., the most well-liked one being that mainstream media manipulates data at 63 per cent. Americans had been additionally least more likely to imagine the Earth is flat, adopted by the lunar touchdown hoax.

According to Steve Mossop, vice-president of Leger, perception in conspiracy theories has elevated because the pandemic. Combined with the expansion of social media platforms, the atmosphere is rife with on-line “rabbit holes” that increasingly folks appear to imagine in, he mentioned.
“More than 50 per cent don’t believe the media is telling the truth. I can remember days in the 90s and 2000s where people really had a high regard for the media,” Mossop advised Global News.
“With COVID and with President Trump calling fake news, there’s been this erosion of trust, the perception of media not only in our country but in the USA as well.”
Mossop mentioned Leger needed to “benchmark traditional conspiracy theories,” such because the Kennedy and Princess Diana deaths. The findings have “broad social implications,” he added.
“Some of the ones that are serious — there is a belief that pharma and government withhold cures for cancer, and that’s in the 20th percentiles of Canadians believing that. That has implications on confidence in your health-care system and the motivations of pharmaceutical companies,” Mossop defined.

The ballot exhibits the algorithms of social media benefit additional consideration, he added, as a result of they’ll amplify and self-perpetuate false content material earlier than customers are even conscious they’ve fallen prey to it. The legitimization of these theories by some celebrities doesn’t assist both, he mentioned.
“At the end of the day, what I see in common with most of these people is this sense that people who are in charge, people who have power covering up and are lying to people that are institutions, are false.”
— with information from Paul Johnson
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https://globalnews.ca/news/10138409/leger-conspiracy-theories-poll-2023/