Striking number of Swiss find discredited conspiracy theories plausible

Nearly half the respondents in a Swiss survey considered it plausible that the coronavirus had been manufactured as a biological weapon in a Chinese laboratory. More than a third gave some credence to an antisemitic claim that Jewish networks secretly control much of Western politics. The findings come from a study by the University of Zurich’s Research Centre for the Public Sphere and Society, known as fög. Researchers surveyed 1,222 internet users aged 18–79 in German- and French-speaking Switzerland in July 2026. They examined how people perceive disinformation and what makes them more or less susceptible to unsupported conspiracy claims….