- Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?
- This is a question of great interest to me due in large part to current events. As many of you may know, this tumultuous period in our lives, also known as the COVID-2019 pandemic, has been filled to the brim with weird people believing in even weirder things. A global pandemic that has killed over 2.36 million people across the world? Fake. A safe and secure election was actually rigged by demon worshipping pedophiles. True. Donald Trump is actually a servant of God that is fighting all the injustice in the United States of America. Absolutely factual. Terrifyingly, all of these ridiculous and utterly peculiar statements and ideas have gained quite large followings all over the world, particularly in the United States. With little to no proof to support any of the claims, and even the rare piece of “evidence” being incredibly shaky at best, people should have no real reason to believe them, right? You would think so, but somehow these strange ideas have infiltrated the brains of many and I plan on figuring out why.
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Hi Victor,
I look forward to reading your posts! This is a very important topic, that must be discussed. Conspiracy theories are taking over peoples common sense, at an exponential rate. Furthermore, many are using them as excuses to act violently. A few questions I have for you:
– Are there any specific conspiracy theories you are interested in/ want to research about?
– Are you going to be focusing on how theories spread through society, or why/if our brains are wired to believe them? (or both maybe?)
– Are there any conspiracy theories which you have believed in, at a time in your life? If so why? ( I think it would be interesting to talk about your experience with them as well)
Can’t wait to read your next posts!
– Nikki S.
Thanks for the great comment Nikki! I am really interested in multiple conspiracy theories, mainly modern American ones (the weird ones), such as QAnon. I will likely touch on why and if some people are more susceptible to believing conspiracy theories when given little to no evidence to support any of the claims. And yes, sadly I have believed in multiple conspiracy theories throughout my life. An example of one of them is that Huawei is working with the Chinese government to steal people’s information. To be honest, I still believe in this and I don’t really see it as a conspiracy theory, as there is considerable evidence to back it up, but in the technical sense it is still a conspiracy theory due to the fact that it has yet to be fully proven.
Hi Victor!
This is a very interesting question. I’ve wondered this too, and I’m excited to see what you find out. I think that certain people are inclined to believe conspiracy theories because they line up with their beliefs, while factual evidence doesn’t. We are more likely to believe and retain information that lines up with are beliefs, which is a cognitive bias.
Cognitive bias and corona virus:
https://ucleuropeblog.com/2020/11/16/conspiracy-theories-cognitive-biases-and-covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy/
Different types of cognitive bias:
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/cognitive-bias#common-types
I look forward to reading your future posts,
-Jasmine 🙂
Hello Victor!
This is a great topic and I would like to learn more about it. In Socials, my teacher mentioned the QAnon club and how they broke in the white house. It would be cool if you included that in your research because those people believe in a lot of questionable theories. In terms of conspiracy theories, there is a conspiracy about the death of Juice WRLD being fake.
This is the video.
https://q102.iheart.com/featured/rach-on-the-radio/content/2019-12-09-juice-wrld-conspiracy-theory-is-blowing-up-on-tik-tok-video/