Conspiracy beliefs plus high political activity linked to justifying Jan 6 riot
Mar 5th 2026
Researchers found that conspiracy beliefs are most likely to translate into justification of political violence when combined with high levels of routine political participation, based on two studies of 2020 Trump voters.
- Two studies of 2020 Trump voters (n=372 and n=751) tested how conspiracy beliefs and political participation relate to justifying the Capitol attack.
- Participants who were both highly politically active and endorsed conspiracy theories were most likely to justify the violence.
- Experimental exposure to election fraud claims strengthened the link between political activity and justification among active participants.
- Conspiracy belief alone did not consistently predict support for political violence across the samples.
- Findings are based on self-reported justification and a sample limited to Trump voters, so they may not generalize to other groups.