The Appeal of Conspiracy Theories

the appeal of conspiracy theories

according to a poll from Fairly

Dickinson University over half of

American adults believe in at least one

conspiracy theory and though subscribing

to conspiracies is more rampant in some

personality types and social

demographics than others false

narratives of one form or another are

held by people across all racial

economic and political backgrounds in an

age when access to information from

legitimate sources are only a click away

why are conspiracy theories still so

prevalent what makes them so appealing

well there are quite a few psychological

factors that lead to the belief in

conspiracy theories in the game of

survival the human mind has become

hardwired to believe in intentional

causality if you hear a rustling noise

in the bushes it's a safer bet to

believe that it's a threat rather than

presume it's just the wind dismissing

the noise may lead to danger but

believing that there is a threat means

you'll take action to avoid harm

regardless if there's something actually

there so in some ways we have evolved to

air on the side of paranoid belief

another major factor is human beings

Superior pattern processing as a species

one of our greatest strengths is our

ability to find meaningful patterns in

the world around us and to make causal

inferences pattern processing is at the

heart of our ability to use language

understand and navigate our environment

and project future outcomes but

identifying patterns is an automatic

process of the mind and therefore can

lead to the formulation of false

patterns this is the reason we see faces

in inanimate objects create

relationships between events that are

really just coincidence and is a

contributing factor to why we believe in

conspiracy theories there is also our

tendency towards confirmation bias

acknowledging that we are wrong about

something is a difficult thing for most

of us to admit this is especially true

of Concepts and ideas that we associate

with our world view these are ideas that

we strongly connect with and admitting

that they are incorrect can feel like we

are admitting that there is something

wrong with us personally this leads us

to give more weight to evidence that

support what we already believe and

ignore evidence that contradicts those

beliefs there is also our innate

tendency to assume that big events have

big causes for instance the president

being killed by a single shooter acting

alone feels unbalanced that is why a CT

government conspiracy with multiple

Shooters feels more plausible despite

the evidence otherwise another

contributing factor is projection this

is an unconscious impulse to deny

negative qualities in ourselves while

attributing them to others for those who

actively conspire and lie they

reflexively believe that others are

acting similarly making conspiracies

more plausible and widespread in general

people don't resort to lying unless they

feel weak or powerless which brings us

to our last conspiracy generator all of

these factors become more exacerbated at

times when we feel powerless or when our

lives in the world around us seem out of

control fear jump starts our amydala and

directs our brain to assess the

situation take stock of the patterns

around us and seek out a remedy we are

desperately looking for a way to restore

our sense of agency and we'll convince

ourselves we know what is going on even

if that means reassuring ourselves with

a narrative that has no basis in fact

that said not all conspiracy theories

are false some indeed turn out to be

true that is why it's always important

to keep an open mind weigh all the

evidence determine if the sources are

legitimate and be careful not to be

seduced by the lurd appeal of a juicy

conspiracy just because it supports

something you want to believe

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