Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories
Understanding the psychology of Conspiracy Theories
Popularly known conspiracy theories in this world are that 9/11 is an inside job, Barack Obama wasn’t born in the USA, Vaccines cause autism, Jews let down Germany in 1914 in WW1, and Jews brought communism to Russia. One big conspiracy theory that perhaps changed history was Iraq had WMD, which brought down Saddam Hussein and also created various militant and terrorist groups like ISIS.
There are multiple high-profile people who made their career out of propagating such conspiracy theories, including Alex Jones and Donald Trump, where controversies over their statements and speeches.
What is a Conspiracy Theory?
Is Conspiracy Theory a lie or is it misleading information, or something else? There exists no clear-cut definition for the term. In Psychology, Conspiracy Theory will have the following elements.
Pattern- What distinguishes a lie from a conspiracy theory is that there is a clear-cut pattern and narrative present. X leads to Y, and Y leads to Z, so X leads to Z is the justified derivation with both X and Y working together for Z.
Agency- There exists an agency which is always made part of a conspiracy theory. Which is, most of the…
