They’re Conspiring Against Us: How Follower’s Sense of Control Influences Evaluations of Conspiratorial Leaders

The apparent rise of high profile leaders who openly espouse conspiracy theories has concerned many commentators. In an effort to explain and understand this phenomenon, we examine follower’s evaluations of leaders who engage in conspiratorial rhetoric. Drawing on compensatory control theory, we posit that when followers lack a sense of control they will evaluate conspiratorial leaders more positively. Across two studies, we find that conspiratorial leaders are evaluated more negatively than non-conspiratorial leaders, but that this gap shrinks when followers’ sense of control is lower.