Leadership style, group orientation of conspiracy beliefs and uncertainty in the era of COVID-19: Effects on moral leadership and leader identification and the moderating role of right-wing authoritarianism

In this study, we investigate the effects of (a) group orientation of conspiracy theories and (b) leadership style on moral leadership, as well as the moderating role of right-wing authoritarianism in the relationship between group orientation of conspiracy beliefs and moral leadership and identification with the leader. We manipulated leadership style as democratic and despotic by producing two scenarios respectively, describing the leader of a fictional country. We also manipulated group orientation of conspiracy beliefs by producing a scenario about a conspiracy with the domestic government of the fictional country as the protagonist (in-group conspiracy) or a foreign country as the protagonist of the conspiracy (outgroup conspiracy). A pre-test study (N=100) provided evidence for the efficiency of our experimental manipulations. The main study employed a 2 (in-group vs. outgroup orientation conspiracy theories) x 2 (democratic vs despotic leadership) factorial design (N=480). Results showed that there was a statistically significant main effect of orientation of conspiracy beliefs on moral leadership and identification with the leader, a statistically significant main effect of leadership style and a statistically significant interaction effect between group orientation of conspiracy beliefs and leadership style on moral leadership and identification with the leader. A significant moderating effect of right-wing authoritarianism was found in the relationship between group orientation of conspiracy theories and perceptions of moral leadership and identification with the leader. Discussion focuses on the use of in-group or outgroup orientated conspiracy beliefs in moral leadership practice.