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60 Conspiracy Craze

Conspiracy craze: why 12 has shown that feelings of powerlessness and given a packet of purposefully ambiguous
uncertainty are associated with a tendency to information.
million Americans believe believe in conspiracies, says Karen Douglas, “If everyone was rational, the

professor of social psychology at the University information would moderate their beliefs,”
alien lizards rule us of Kent in the UK. Or as Joseph E Uscinski, Brotherton explains, and those who were sure of
associate professor of political science at the a conspiracy would start to doubt it, while those
University of Miami and author of American who were sure there was no conspiracy would
Psychologists are trying to
Conspiracy Theories, puts it, “conspiracies are also question their stance. “The opposite
determine why otherwise rational for losers”. happened: people picked and chose the
individuals can make the leap “I don’t mean it in the pejorative sense, information they wanted to believe and
but people who are out of power use conspiracy everyone became more sure of their initial
from “prudent paranoia” to
theories to strategically alert their side to danger, beliefs.”
illogical conspiracy theories to close ranks, to salve their wounds,” Uscinski While most conspiracies tend to gain
explains. “Think any election, the morning after, traction in a very small number of people, when
According to a Public Policy Polling survey, half the country says the election was rigged and someone acts on a conspiracy, it can become
around 12 million people in the US believe that the other half is happy.” dangerous very quickly. Cliven Bundy’s
interstellar lizards in people suits rule our Believing in a conspiracy theory is one followers have tended to believe in everything
country. We imported that particular belief from strategy people use to regain a sense of control, from the government secretly microchipping
across the pond, where professional conspiracy even if the conspiracy theory is unrelated to millennials to the United Nations running the
theorist David Icke has long maintained that the what caused the lack of control in a person’s life, Bureau of Land Management. People who
Queen of England is a blood-drinking, shape- Brotherton says. Conspiracy theories are a way believe that the mass shooting in Sandy Hook,
shifting alien. for someone to understand what is going on in Connecticut, was faked have harassed the
Conspiracy theories in general are not the world and try to restore some sense of families of children that were killed.
necessary bad, according to psychologists who control in his or her life, he explains. Douglas and her colleague Dan Jolley,
study them. “If we were all completely trusting, Studies also find a relationship between have studied the social consequences to
it would not be good for survival,” explains Rob a certain type of open mindedness and a contemporary conspiracy theories. They have
Brotherton, an academic psychologist and tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. examined the impact of believing in government
author of Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe People who believe in these also believe in New conspiracy theories, in climate change
Conspiracy Theories. “Sometimes people really Age dogmas, urban legends and all sorts of conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine conspiracy
don’t have our best interests in mind.” slightly unorthodox ideas, Brotherton explains. theories. The findings were troublesome, says
But when people leap from thinking their Unsurprisingly, a tendency to be suspicious and Douglas.
boss is trying to undermine them to believing not to trust people or institutions is also In one experiment, researchers took two
their boss might be a secret lizard person, they positively correlated with how likely someone is groups of participants and gave one group an
probably cross from what psychologists refer to to believe in a conspiracy theory. article about anti-vaccine conspiracy theories,
as “prudent paranoia” into illogical territory. The most widely appealing conspiracy such as the idea that pharmaceutical companies
And there are a lot of illogical ideas to theories are the ones that allow a person to insert fake the safety and efficacy data for inoculations
pick from. Around 66 million Americans believe their own villain of choice, Uscinski says. For because the shots make so much money. The
that aliens landed at Roswell, New Mexico; example, conspiracy theories around the other group did not read the article. All the
around 22 million people believe that the assassination of JFK are so popular in part participants were then asked to think about
government faked the moon landing; and around because they allow believers to blame the being a parent of a three-year-old and asked if
160 million believe that there is a conspiracy coverup on whichever power they most fear: the they would vaccinate the child against a fictional
surrounding the assassination of former US US government and associated agencies like the disease. The participants who had read the anti-
president John F Kennedy. CIA or the former Soviet Union and Cuba. vaccine conspiracy literature showed they were
While aliens and fake moon landings Most conspiracy theories come and go, less likely to intend to have the child inoculated.
probably trigger eyerolls in many of us, defining Uscinski says, and it is hard to get more than In the US, those findings are playing out
what constitutes a conspiracy theory is difficult, 25% of the population to believe in a particular in places like California, which saw an outbreak
Brotherton says. The government, for example, one. There is a natural ceiling to the number of of measles in 2014 in areas where children were
does sometimes conspire to do the unspeakable, people who will buy into any one particular not routinely vaccinated. It’s understandable
such as the infamous 1930s Tuskegee study, conspiracy theory, says Uscinski, who points to why people are drawn to anti-vaccine
initiated by the US government to examine those that emerged after the death of US conspiracy theories, Brotherton says. When
untreated syphilis in African-American men. supreme court Justice Antonin Scalia – which people are dealing with some of the most
Researchers blocked research participants from were a “flash in the pan” and quickly important choices in their lives, like how to raise
receiving penicillin or exiting the experiment to disappeared as people moved on to the “next their children, and something unsettling
get treatment. The study continued until a media thing”. happens, “your brain will reach for explanations,
report made it public. In this case, believing that But once someone believes a conspiracy for a sense of order”. A person under those
the government was conspiring to keep people theory, dissuading him or her of it is an uphill circumstances is not likely to critically evaluate
sick would have been completely accurate. battle. That’s because belief in a conspiracy is the evidence presented, and the internet “is full
There are characteristics that help not based on facts and logic, Brotherton of people that are convinced that vaccines are
differentiate a conspiracy theory from prudent explains. Something as straightforward, for bad”.
paranoia, Brotherton says. Conspiracy theories example, as pointing out the lack of evidence for While, as Uscinski points out, there is a
tend to depend on conspirators who are unduly a conspiracy theory would only reinforce the ceiling for the number of people who will buy
evil, he explains, with genocide or world belief that the evidence for it was suppressed. into a particular conspiracy theory, the anti-
domination as a motive. Conspiracy theories Getting someone to let go of a favorite vaccination movement is one example of how a
also tend to assign an usually high level of conspiracy theory is like convincing a small number of people can make a wild
competency to the conspirators, Brotherton Republican to become a Democrat and vice conspiracy theory go viral. []
adds, pointing out that when the government versa, Uscinski says.
really does “shady stuff” it often isn’t able to “We like to believe we objectively
The ‘X’ Zone Radio/TV Show
keep it secret. scrutinize information and come to reasonable
with
Chances are, we all know someone who beliefs,” Brotherton says, but in reality we have
Rob McConnell
believes some version of a conspiracy theory, “all kinds of biases built into our brains”.
which is why psychologists have been trying to He cites a study in which researchers on
understand what makes someone jump from recruited a group of people who believed in JFK The ‘X’ Zone Broadcast Network
logically questioning the world to looking for assassination conspiracy theories and a group and
signs of lizard teeth in public figures. Research who doubted the theories. Both groups were
The ’X’ Zone TV Channel