HuffPo Politics: Research on Why People Engage in Conspiracy Theories

[profgoose]

Twenty percent of Americans still doubt that President Barack Obama was born in the United States, years after the White House released his long-form birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii. In 2012, 36 percent of Americans said that senior federal officials probably or certainly knew in advance about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- despite the fact that as best anyone can tell, the Bush administration received no specific warnings about 9/11 before it happened.

A newly published study sheds some light on why and how people believe conspiracy theories, even when all the evidence indicates they’re not true. It turns out that conservatives who believe conservative-leaning conspiracy theories are more politically knowledgeable than conservatives who don’t. However, among liberals, there doesn't seem to be concrete evidence of a correlation one way or the other between how well-informed someone is and how likely they are to believe conspiracy theories.

Conspiracy Theorists Might Actually Know More About Politics Than You

The journal article linked in the HuffPo piece is dense, but worth it.

[2pooped2pop]

1. because our government has proven itself over and over again to be

nothing but lies and deception? We should question everything.

[cprise]

2. Its just another way of labeling someone a Crackpot

As its used by the establishment, the term no longer has much relation to the amount of supporting evidence. All that matters is the sector of society the theories come from; If you're a peon with suspicions against the establishment, then you're a CT'er and your opinions will be lumped in with UFOs, weather control, birther-ism and such.

This pattern of labeling people goes hand-in-hand with a culture of impunity at the top. Instead of properly investigating and prosecuting crimes, the issues become untouchable and fall into a limbo category of lore and open speculation. This is why violent revolutions are practically foaming with CT... the whole thing becomes like a dam that bursts, pushed by the weight of the more obvious examples of impunity.

It all comes down to who gets to be suspicious of who, and whether there will be any consequences. As government fills the prisons (pushing 1/5 of the adult population through them) and undertakes the task of turning this into a profit center, the ironic asymmetry is becoming unbearable.

[Igel]

3. Not going to spring for the $6. Or whatever.

Still, the HuffPo summary was interesting.

I wonder not just about the particular CTs but also who was surveyed as "conservative" versus "liberal." I knew a lot of doltish CT-imbibing cons who weren't that informed, but they might have been hard to pull into anything like a random sample.

I still stick to my firmly anecdotally-based view: Most people who buy into CTs not only do so because they fit in with their pre-existing beliefs and distrust government (media sources, other groups, etc.), but

(1) find support for their beliefs in their CTs and

(2) believe that knowledge of the underlying truth of the CTs makes them superior, smarter, more attractive, and wiser than the hoi polloi that ignorantly dismiss them, thereby

(3) forming an easily recognizable closed community for camaraderie and ego-building.