More than a third of French people adhere to conspiracy theories, according to a study

According to an Ifop study published Thursday, April 13, 35% of French people say they believe in conspiracy theories. Nearly one in ten French people (9%) say they even firmly believe in it. This mistrust with regard to official speeches is part of time.

Thus, 33% of French people believe that the American government was aware of Al-Qaeda’s plans for attacks on September 11, 2001. Regarding the images of the Apollo 11 moon landing and Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon , 16% of French people think that they are the result of a staging. More recent conspiracy theories are also widely used: 20% believe that the massacre of civilians in Boutcha was staged by the Ukrainian authorities.

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These conspiracy theories are spreading widely among younger generations. Just under half of young people admit to believing in a conspiracy theory (41% of 18-24 year olds and 41% of 25-34 year olds). This conspiracy is more present among French people with a level of study below the baccalaureate (44%) than among those whose diploma is higher than the baccalaureate (20%). Ifop also notes a high rate of support for conspiracy at the ends of the political spectrum: half of Marine Le Pen voters (51%) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon voters (50%) during the election presidential election in 2022 thus declare that they believe in conspiracy theories.

Strong French support for scientific untruths

Another finding established by this study is the strong adherence of French people to scientific untruths since 4 out of 10 French people say they adhere to at least one scientific untruth. This membership rate climbs to 45% among 18-24 year olds and 42% among those aged 65 and over.

Climato-skepticism is one of the scientific untruths that seduce the most French people. Despite the various scientific reports, such as those of the IPCC, 29% of French people believe that global warming is not due to human activities, but to natural phenomena. A third (33%) of French people aged 65 and over support this idea, compared to 24% of 18-24 year olds. This untruth is validated by 41% of National Rally supporters, by 37% of Les Républicains supporters, or 16% of EELV supporters. In addition, 12% of French people consider it possible for the Earth to be flat and 20% of young people aged 25 to 34 adhere to this idea.

*This study was conducted by IFOP for Amb-usa.fr from January 26 to 27, 2023. A self-administered online questionnaire was carried out with a sample of 1,018 people representative of the French population aged 18 years and over, adjusted on socio-demographic, political and religious criteria.