Page 32 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - August/September 2017

32 Why People Believe in Conspiracies

How Come Some People Here's Why People was a conspiracy of the city council. But those
who had been primed to feel in control were less
Believe in the Believe In Conspiracy likely to believe the government was up to
something evil. “We found that if you give
Paranormal? Theories people a feeling of control, then they are less

inclined to believe those conspiracy theories,”
Continued from Page 31 UFO sightings. Hoaxed moon landings. he says. “Giving people a sense of control can
Reptiles who rule the world. make them less suspicious over governmental
You might ask: Why kill the magic? Not What, in the name of our alleged lizard operations.”
overlords, convinces a person to believe in The Dutch, of course, aren't the only
everything needs to be explained by science. Yet
conspiracy theories? believers. The second experiment looked at
misinformation of this kind can be harmful. For
According to a pair of new studies survey data from a nationally representative
example, in a recent study, I found that merely
published in the journal Applied Cognitive sample of Americans conducted in the last
exposing people to a 2-minute conspiracy video
Psychology, conspiracy theorists—and there are months of 1999 leading up to Y2K. "The more
clip significantly decreases acceptance of
a lot more of them than you may think—tend to that people feared the millennium bug in 1999,
science, civic engagement, and overall pro-
social inclinations. I call this the “conspiracy- have one thing in common: they feel a lack of the more likely they were inclined to believe in
effect”. Although I did not measure cognitive control over their lives. other conspiracy theories, ranging from
style, non-reflective thinkers may be especially Jan-Willem van Prooijen, associate Kennedy to the government hiding evidence of
professor in social and organizational the existence of UFOs," van Prooijen says. The
vulnerable to such misinformation. Similarly,
psychology at VU University Amsterdam, has best predictor of believing in one conspiracy, he
the French research team notes that non-
been studying conspiracy theories and those says, is believing in another.
reflective individuals may be vulnerable to
who believe them for six years. "When I started This finding backs up data from another
scams. Indeed, millions of dollars are made
this research, one of the things that I really group last year, which found that 37% of
every year by people who (falsely) claim that
found astonishing was how many people surveyed Americans believe that the FDA is
they can read your mind or talk to deceased
family members. believe in certain conspiracy theories," he says. deliberately preventing the public from
Is there any way to protect people from accessing natural cures for cancer because
falling prey to such magical thinking? There is Conspiracy theories often crop up during times they're beholden to drug companies.
of uncertainty and fear: after terrorist strikes, These beliefs can be very hard to
some evidence. Research has suggested that
financial crises, high-profile deaths and natural change, but giving people a feeling of control
these type of intuitive beliefs often interact with
disasters. Past research suggests that if people could help dispel some conspiratorial beliefs,
emotional processes. Accordingly, a recent
feel they don’t have control over a situation, the new research suggests—a finding that could
study showed that priming people to think more
they’ll try to make sense of it and find out what prove useful worldwide. "There are no doubt
reflectively reduces tendencies to engage in, for
happened. “The sense-making leads them to cultural variables influencing it," van Prooijen
example, conspiratorial thinking. It is important
to note, however, that neither “intuitive” nor connect dots that aren’t necessarily connected in says. "But the essence of conspiracy theorizing
“reflective” thinking alone is always better, as reality,” van Prooijen says. is, I think, universal in human beings. People
both thinking styles often work together. For He and his team showed that the have a natural tendency to be suspicious of
opposite is also true: feeling a sense of control groups that are powerful and potentially
example, when overwhelmed by a large number
is protective against believing conspiracy hostile."
of competing choice options, relying on an
theories. In one of the studies, they split 119
instinctive gut feeling can be useful (the “less is
people into two groups and told one group to
more” effect). The real trick is figuring out
write down times when they were totally in
when to rely a little more on your gut feelings
control; the other group was told to jot down a
and when to draw a little more on your
analytical powers. Although our intuition serves time when they didn’t feel in control. (This gave
us well in some cases, we may all benefit from one group a powerful feeling, while the other
a little more reflective thinking before we felt helpless.)
The researchers then surveyed their
decide to accept uncanny explanations about the
attitudes on a building project in Amsterdam
nature of reality.
that accidentally destroyed the foundations of
many houses, and which many people believed The ‘X’ Zone - www.xzoneradiotv.com