Fox News Viewership Increases Belief In False Conspiracy Theories About Immigration

This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.

Duringa Washington Nationals baseball gameon May 17, 2026, three peopleunfurled a large bannerfrom the upper deck of Nationals Park displaying a link to a white nationalist website.

The website, warning of the replacement of whites by people of color, called forthe deportation of 100 million peoplefrom the United States.

The disturbing incident reflects the broaderascendance of the great replacement theory," the xenophobic conspiracy theory asserting that shadowy elites are embracing permissive immigration policies to replace native-born white Americans with immigrants of color.

Prominent Republicans, includingPresident Donald Trump,Speaker of the House Mike Johnsonandconservative podcaster Tucker Carlson, have echoed ideas associated with the great replacement theory. Andconservative media outlets, such asFox News, have disseminated them to millions of viewers.

But are the xenophobic ideas recently expressed at Nationals Park limited to a small number of extremists, or are they also endorsed by the broader public? If the latter, how do political and media elites contribute to their spread?

To answer these questions, our team has conducted severalnationally representative surveysthat ask Americans about their support for key tenets of the great replacement theory.

New immigrants as a threat

We consistently found thata substantial minority of Americansagree with the sentiment that new immigrants threaten the political, cultural and economic power of white Americans. In our latest poll of 1,000 Americans fielded in March 2026, 36% agreed with the statement: Native-born Americans are losing their economic, political, and cultural influence in this country because of the growing population of immigrants."

A notable number of Americans - 26% - also believed political elites are trying to replace" the existing white population, agreeing with the statement: There are people who secretly work to make sure immigrants will eventually replace real Americans."

Support for these beliefs is concentrated most heavily among white Americans, Republicans, conservatives and self-identifying members of Donald Trump's Make America Great Again movement. Indeed, more than 3 in 4 members of the MAGA movement and close to 6 in 10 Republicans agreed with the statement: Immigrants invade and colonize the United States."

But what explains this spread of the great replacement theory?

Inour newly published, peer-reviewed study, we used nationally representative panel survey data thattracked over 500 white Americans over timeto attempt to answer this question.

We found that white Americans who identified as Republican, who are conservatives and who havenegative views of people from other racial backgroundsare all more likely to express support for key tenets of the great replacement theory. Moreover, we uncovered clear evidence that white Americans who watch Fox News are also more likely to agree with the conspiracy theory.

Given the popularity of Fox News, we believe this latter point deserved further investigation. As detailed in our paper, while 39% of all white Americans agree that immigrants invade and colonize the U.S., 61% of white Americans who watch Fox News agree with this view. Even when taking into account partisan identification, ideology, racial attitudes and demographic characteristics, Fox News viewership remains significantly associated with more support for the great replacement theory.

Additionally, because we tracked white Americans over time, we could observe changes in their support for the conspiracy theory in response to variations in their viewership of Fox News. Simply put, the more Fox News programming that a white American watches, the more likely they are to adopt the conspiracy theory.

Links to political violence

Our research builds on decades of work showing that public opinion is strongly influenced by media consumption. Recent scholarship, in particular, highlights the influence of Fox News on public opinion. It shows how exposure to Fox News leads Americans to express more conservative attitudes about theCOVID-19 pandemic,immigration policiesandcriminal justice issues.

Giventhe attention that Fox News hosts, elected officials and pundits dedicate to the great replacement theory, our results suggest that this coverage has indeed influenced the views of white Americans. The great replacement theory is no longer purely on the fringes of society.

In our view, this is troubling, not only because the conspiracy theory treats immigration as an existential issue - where the stakes are framed as the very preservation of one's self and country - but also because the theory is also linked tonumerous instances of political violencedirected at people of color and religious minorities.

As America approaches its 250th birthday, the nation will no doubt continue to grapple with the topic of immigration, race and what it means to be an American.

While there's plenty of room for disagreement over immigration policy, conspiracy theories make it much harder to find common ground or craft political compromises. What we've found is that when prominent media embrace conspiracy theorizing, increased public endorsement of conspiracies will follow.

Adam Eichen is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at UMass Amherst; Jesse Rhodes is Associate Professor of Political Science at UMass Amherst, and Tatishe Nteta is Provost Professor of Political Science at UMass Amherst