Brandt, E.E.S. Environments of Disbelief: Serbian Youth, Conspiracy Theory, and Practices of Digital Distrust. Qual Sociol 48, 637–663 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-025-09610-3

Conspiracy theories are often understood as resulting from a lack of proper skepticism or an inability to approach narratives critically. This paper argues that we should instead see conspiracy theories as resulting from an excess of skepticism. Interviews with Serbian youth show how conspiracism coincides with other skeptical media practices, including fact-checking with Google, averaging for objectivity, and a preference for unmediated information. Living in an environment of disbelief, where institutions and official narratives cannot be trusted, young Serbians deploy conspiracy theories and related skeptical media practices as methods of political and social critique. More generally, this case study demonstrates the need for scholars to focus on conspiracy theories as part of a broader repertoire of media consumption practices characteristic of environments, rather than as pathologies of individuals.