Legislator criticism of a candidate’s conspiracy beliefs reduces support for the conspiracy but not the candidate: Evidence from Marjorie Taylor Greene and QAnon

Abstract

In November 2020, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene became the first open supporter of QAnon to be elected to the United States Congress. Despite criticism from Democrats, Republicans, and the media for her belief in this dangerous conspiracy theory, Greene remains a prominent national figure and a member of Congress. In a large survey experiment examining the effects of criticisms of Greene by different sources, we found that criticism of Greene from a Republican or a Democratic official reduced positive feelings toward QAnon but not Greene herself. However, unsourced criticisms and criticisms from media figures failed to measurably affect feelings toward either Greene or QAnon. Our results suggest that public officials have a unique responsibility to criticize misinformation, but they also highlight the difficulty in shifting attitudes toward politicians who embrace and spread falsehoods.