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Research on conspiracy theories in the fields of social and political psychology has identified dispositional and situational factors that lead to belief in conspiracy theories. However, there is still a lack of research on how and why individuals engage in conspiratorial thinking (CT) within the area of public relations. This study views CT as individuals' propensity to consider malicious events and circumstances as secret plots initiated by a powerful organization for its self-serving purposes and applies CT to a government-public relationship context. Using a survey dataset collected from a nationally representative sample of Australia citizens (n = 542), this study examines CT about the Australian government using five survey items that measure CT. CT was found to be significant in fully mediating the relationship between organization-public relationship quality and negative megaphoning. • Studies conspiratorial thinking (CT) in the context of government. • Measures it with five survey items. • Examines organization-public relationship quality (OPRQ) as its antecedent. • Examines negative megaphoning (NM) as its outcome. • Finds CT's significance in fully mediating the relationship between OPRQ and NM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]