“They've conspired against us”: Understanding the role of social identification and conspiracy beliefs in justification of ingroup collective behavior

The present research investigates conditions under which beliefs in conspir-acy theories predict the desire to justify ingroup behavior in the context ofintergroup conflict. We propose that within the context of Ukraine’s inter-group conflict over the annexation of Crimea, supporters (but not oppo-nents) of the “Euromaidan” social movement are likely to validateprotesters’ collective actions as just to the extent that they believe that theauthorities are engaged in annexation-related conspiracies. We also exam-ine the moderating role of perceived political corruption in these processes.Using a public opinion survey of 315 Ukrainians, we found support for ourhypothesized moderated mediation model—identification with “Euro-maidan” increased beliefs in the annexation-related conspiracy theories,which in turn, increased justification of protesters’ actions in the setting ofintergroup conflict. However, this mediation was only observed amongthose supporters of the Euromaidan who perceived political corruption tobe at a low or average level