Poll: Political identity largely affects belief in conspiracies

A person’s belief in conspiracies is largely dependent on that person’s political identity, according to a new Economist/YouGov poll.

The poll finds that 87 percent of those who voted for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton think it’s probably or definitely true that Russia hacked the emails of Democrats to help Donald Trump, while just 20 percent of Trump voters think that theory is true.

Reports earlier this month said a secret CIA assessment determined Russia intervened in the election to help Trump, a conclusion that the president-elect and his team have dismissed, calling it “ridiculous.”

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In another example, 17 percent of Clinton voters in the poll believe that leaked emails from the Clinton campaign talked about pedophilia and human trafficking, which some have refer to as “pizzagate,” while 46 percent of Trump voters believe that conspiracy theory.

The poll was conducted after an armed man walked into a pizza shop in Northwest Washington, D.C., to investigate a false report that Clinton and her campaign chairman ran a child-sex ring in a back room.

Regarding the topic of voter fraud in the election, just a quarter of Clinton voters, 25 percent, believe millions of votes were illegally cast in this year’s presidential race, while 62 percent of Trump supporters believe that statement.

Meanwhile, the poll found that half of Clinton supporters, 50 percent, believe it’s true that Russia tampered with the vote tallies to help elect Trump, while 9 percent of Trump voters believe that claim.

The president-elect tweeted without evidence after the election that he would have won had there not been “millions” of people who voted illegally. He also claimed voter fraud in Virginia, New Hampshire and California.

The poll was conducted from Dec. 17 to 20 among 1,376 adults. The margin of error is 3.3 percentage points.