It’s common in certain types of polemic. People hold (or claim to hold) beliefs to signal group affiliation, and the more outlandishly improbable the beliefs become, the more effective they are as a signal.
It becomes a competition: Whoever professes beliefs which most strain credibility is the most loyal.
Data on that question would be an interesting thing to gather, though I might guess they would take attempts to measure their belief as somehow a manifestation of the conspiracy. (Everything is evidence for the conspiracy.)
It’s common in certain types of polemic. People hold (or claim to hold) beliefs to signal group affiliation, and the more outlandishly improbable the beliefs become, the more effective they are as a signal.
It becomes a competition: Whoever professes beliefs which most strain credibility is the most loyal.
I think that most people who tell pollsters they believe conspiracy theories wouldn’t bet on them.
Data on that question would be an interesting thing to gather, though I might guess they would take attempts to measure their belief as somehow a manifestation of the conspiracy. (Everything is evidence for the conspiracy.)