Why Are Republicans so Prone to Conspiracy Theories?

During Obama's era there were always lots of conspiracy theories floating about, like the one that Obama was born in Africa that Trump promoted for years.  But it used to be the conspiracy theories came from outside government.  Since Donald Trump arrived in the White House the conspiracy theories seem to often begin in the White House.

I ask myself - why are Republicans currently so prone to conspiracy theories.  Perhaps some of it is just calculated political expediency - such as the theory Michael Flynn was somehow set up by the Obama administration working in collusion with the FBI.

But then I started wondering if it could be because a some Republicans think that in ideological battles the ends justify means.  So they cut corners and cheat to win.  And since they do it they suspect other people must also be doing it - hence they always look for hidden conspiracies.

That led me to a really interesting wikipedia website that lists all the federal officers convicted of crimes back through history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_federal_politicians_convicted_of_crimes

I did some computations starting from 2009. 

Six of the folks listed on the Wikipedia list I classified as non-political crimes so did not include in the below computation - drugs or sex/relationship items.  They include 1 Independant, 1 Democrat and 4 Republicans - most the Republicans were Judges.

During the Obama years members of Congress convicted of politically related crimes were pretty evenly split, 5 Republicans and 4 Democrats.  During the Trump years the only listed Democrat convicted is, ironically, Michael Flynn.  Three Republican members of Congress have been convicted, but no Democrats.  (As a passing note of interest we also now have another Republican member of Congress under investigation for insider trading for allegedly using information from Congressional hearings to decide to sell all his stock right before the crash.)

Including all the convictions on the list we have 1 Independent, 7 Democrats and 10 Republicans.

I am certainly not arguing this proves my theory, just throwing it out there because is interesting.  Particularly that Michael Flynn was evidently a registered Democrat?