Conspiracy speeches, does it pay off or not in politics?

In our podcast Wait a minute !, let’s talk about politics, electoral communication and the presidential election. As you will have noticed, the official pre-campaign for the 2022 elections has been launched with big ideas and little phrases, arguments and spat, dropouts and rallies. There are a few months left for the declared (or not) candidates to make themselves heard by the French, to push them aside, to seduce them, to motivate them to vote.

Mathilde Cousin, journalist for the “Fake Off” column, the fact-checking service at 20 Minutes who is particularly interested in social networks, looked at conspiracy comments during these election campaigns. Evoking “hidden” things, “shadow” groups, asserting resistance to an “evil order”, does it work or not to win votes? Our journalist called on two researchers working on the links between conspiracy and politics, Sylvain Delouvée, lecturer in social psychology at the University of Rennes 2, and Julien Giry, lecturer in Political Science at the University of Rennes 1 .

What arguments are used in France?

In this episode, to be listened to in full above, Mathilde Cousin tries to answer these questions: Why are the effects of conspiracy speeches “paradoxical” in terms of effectiveness? After the elections of Donald Trump in the United States, and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, what do we notice in France? Which political camps use the most conspiratorial or conspiratorial discourse? How, targeting which groups of people? How were the failures of the candidate François Fillon (LR) for the presidential election in 2017 and the almost candidate Dominique Strauss-Kahn (PS) in 2011 interpreted?

The entire exchange can be found in this audio episode. Wait a minute ! is an original podcast by 20 Minutes. You can listen to it on all online listening applications and platforms, like Apple podcast, Spotify, Deezer or Podcast addict. Do not hesitate to subscribe, you will find our thousand episodes, and our new broadcasts. You can rate us, with little stars, on Apple Podcast, and send us feedback. To write to us, our email: [email protected]