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YOUNGER PEOPLE LIKELY TO EXPRESS ‘EXTREME OPINIONS' AND ARE OPEN TO CONSPIRACY THEORIES ACCORDING TO NEW REPORT COVERING DECADE OF POLITICAL CHANGE

 HALF OF ENGLISH POPULATION UNDER 35 OPEN TO CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUT ‘NEW WORLD ORDER'

Young people likely to voice more extreme opinions around conspiracies and many young people desire for a different, more extreme form of politics according to a new report from HOPE not hate, the UK's leading anti-fascism campaign group. 

The report,Fear and Hope 2022,looks at how the political landscape has changed entirely since our first Fear and HOPE report in 2011, and how our traditional understanding of what encourages people into supporting reactionary politics has shifted over time. According to the findings:
 

While young people are more likely than older generations to share more positive views of immigration and embrace anti-racist initiatives, they are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories or have low trust in political institutions

• Young people are more open to conspiracies about a ‘new world order' where a group of elites control events (50% of 25-34 and 47% of 18-24s)
• Half (47%) of 18-24s saying that the threat of Covid has been exaggerated by the Government 
• Almost half (42%) of 18-24s saying it was true that vaccines have harmful effects which are not being fully exposed to the public.
• 60% of 18-24 year olds say the ‘political system is broken'
• 18-24 year olds are more likely to think that political violence can be acceptable for something you strongly believe in than other age groups, and just as many 18-24s would prefer having a strong and decisive leader who does not have to bother with parliament or elections (41%) as a political system based on liberal democracy with regular elections (42%).

The report finds that issues of immigration and multiculturalism are far less divisive than they once were.

• The proportion of people who say that having a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures is part of British culture has grown from a minority in 2011 (49%) to 60% in 2021.
• Just 29% said that the different ethnic groups that make up this country get along well in 2011, a decade later this stands at 60%.

Instead, the analysis finds new dividing lines based on four elements; attitudes around identity, political and institutional trust, attitudes towards different cultures and religions and openness to conspiracy theory.

The report develops a new ‘fear index' to understand this, and argues that these new lines are reframing a politics of hate. Rather than a unified bloc of ‘far-right' voters, the new politics of identity opens up opportunities for those peddling hate to bring together a diverse collective of voters, including young people.
 

Rosie Carter, Director ofPolicy at HOPE not hate, the UK's leading antifascism campaign group, said,

"A decade ago, HOPE not hate's first Fear and Hope report concluded there was not a progressive majority in society. It revealed deep resentments to immigration, as well as scepticism towards multiculturalism that cut across society.

Today, we are looking at a very different picture. Attitudes to immigration and multiculturalism are far more positive than they were ten years ago. But with this liberal shift we have seen a pushback emerge, that has reframed questions of racial equality, gender and sexuality. We found that anti-Muslim prejudice and anti-asylum narratives are deeply engrained in mainstream politics. And a new, reactionary identity politics that kicks back against progressive norms on everything from structural racism to modern masculinity.

In the context of an economic crisis and a swelling, broken relationship with the political system, there is potential for a new reactionary party on the right to gain ground witha more diverse and younger pool of voters, while still appealing to a traditionalist base. If it goes unchallenged, we leave the door open for hate to take hold in communities.

 About Fear and HOPE:

• Please contact Georgina Laming at media@hopenothate.org.uk or on 07769033207 for more details
• HOPE not hate first published FEAR and HOPE in 2011 to better understand the new politics of identity.
• A decade later, HNH have recommissioned our Fear and HOPE research to better understand how social attitudes have changed over the last decade. The report looks at how the political landscape has changed entirely in the last decade.
• A copy of the report can be found here: https://we.tl/t-anqPKFvV1k 
• On behalf of HOPE not hate, Stack Data Strategy conducted polling of a sample of 3,000 adults in England, between 8th-14th October 2021 weighted to be representative of the nation in terms of education, region, and interlocked age and gender. Additional data was collected from a nationally representative sample of 1,010 18-24-year-olds living in Britain between 15 and 19 April 2022 via Focaldata. The data is weighted to be representative of 18-24-year-olds in Britain.