Conspiracy theories may serve as a bridge between antisemitism and hostility toward Israel, according to a new U.S. study that found a strong and consistent relationship between anti-Jewish attitudes, conspiratorial beliefs and anti-Israel sentiment.
The research, led by psychologist Dr. Kent Harber of Rutgers University-Newark and published in the journal American Psychologist, examined whether antisemitic attitudes could predict belief in conspiracy theories and, in turn, later hostility toward Israel. Harber said antisemitism channeled through conspiratorial beliefs about Israel and its supporters accounted for more than 55% of anti-Israel attitudes across the cases examined.
“That is a very large effect for psychological research,” Harber said. “A significant amount of hostility toward Israel is intertwined with antisemitism. The relationship between antisemitism, conspiracy theories and hostility toward Israel is predictive, reliable and strong.”
The research was conducted against the backdrop of a documented rise in antisemitism worldwide since 2010, including violent attacks against Jews in the United States and elsewhere, as well as deadly attacks on synagogues.
“At the same time, anti-Jewish hostility and growing hostility toward Israel are increasing,” Harber said. He has also studied conspiracy theories related to the coronavirus pandemic and psychological mechanisms associated with antisemitism.
Harber said the findings provide an evidence-based framework for understanding how the three types of attitudes intersect, and how conspiracy beliefs can form a powerful and persistent connection between them.
At the same time, he stressed that criticism of Israel or its government is not inherently antisemitic.
“People can have legitimate reasons to criticize Israel, just like any other country,” Harber said. “Even unfair or poorly informed hostility toward Israel does not necessarily reveal antisemitism.”
He also emphasized an important limitation of the study: the findings show correlation, not causation. Antisemitism may contribute to anti-Israel attitudes, anger toward Israel may increase hostility toward Jews, or other factors may influence both.
The researchers conducted attitude surveys focusing on three main areas: dislike of Jews unrelated to Israel, which Harber refers to as “classical antisemitism”; anti-Israel sentiment; and belief in conspiracy theories involving Jews and Israel.
Participants were drawn from across the United States and were selected to broadly reflect the country’s racial, ethnic, religious and political demographics. Their average age ranged from 32 to 40 across the different surveys.
In some surveys, researchers used an antisemitism scale developed by Gertrude Selznick and Stephen Steinberg in 1969, examining agreement with statements such as “Jews make too much of oppression” and “You can tell if people are Jewish by the way they look.”
They also used an anti-Israel subscale developed by Harber as part of a Middle East public-opinion survey, which includes disputed accusations and statements attributing malicious motives to Israel.
The researchers found a relationship between classical antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes, with conspiracy beliefs about Israel and pro-Israel Jews appearing to play a central mediating role.
Among the false conspiracy claims presented to participants were statements such as “Israel created the coronavirus as a weapon against Palestine” and “Israel started the war in Gaza to hasten the coming of the Jewish Messiah.”
Harber and his colleagues also examined how attitudes developed over time in an effort to measure the relationship more rigorously.
Pro-Israel demonstration in the United States
(Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
“This predictive relationship shows that knowing a person’s attitudes toward Jews today can help predict their feelings toward Israel in the future,” Harber said. “It also helps rule out momentary explanations, such as participants temporarily being in a bad mood or having just watched or read a particularly disturbing news report about the Middle East.”
The researchers found that antisemitic beliefs measured at the start of the study predicted greater belief in conspiracy theories four weeks later. Those conspiracy beliefs then predicted stronger anti-Israel attitudes another four weeks later.
The study also found differences along political lines. Republican respondents showed slightly higher levels of antisemitic beliefs but less pronounced hostility toward Israel. Democratic participants, by contrast, showed lower levels of classical antisemitism but stronger anti-Israel sentiment and greater support for anti-Israel conspiracy beliefs.
Harber said the findings fit into a much older historical pattern in which conspiracy theories have repeatedly been used to blame Jews for major crises and traumatic events, from the Black Death in medieval Europe to more recent claims surrounding the September 11 attacks and other major events.
The researchers argue that understanding the role of conspiracy beliefs is especially important because such narratives can allow traditional anti-Jewish prejudices to be reframed through contemporary political language surrounding Israel.
But Harber cautioned against using the findings to dismiss legitimate criticism of Israeli policy. The study, he said, is intended to identify patterns in attitudes rather than define all opposition to Israel as antisemitic.
The central finding is narrower: across the groups studied, antisemitism, belief in conspiracy theories and hostility toward Israel were strongly linked, with conspiracy beliefs emerging as a significant mechanism connecting the three.