📋 Understanding Conspiracy Theories
We tend to think of conspiracy theories as a modern phenomenon, a product of our hyper-connected world of social media and home video production. But conspiracy thinking has ancient roots and seems to be based on a set of automatic mental defense systems that get activated in times of great uncertainty and social stress. It is no wonder that in the midst of the current medical crisis we are all facing that conspiracy thinking would thrive. The first article here looks at this issue.
Why conspiracy theories flourish during pandemics
A bioengineered virus, a genetic mutation induced by 5G technology, a big pharma conspiracy, a plot single-handedly masterminded by Bill Gates or Georges Soros. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, conspiracy theories have spread like the virus itself. The whiff of the conspiracy that inevitably seems to trail pandemics is nothing new.
In keeping with the widespread and deeply rooted nature of this mode of thinking, there are general patterns that conspiracy theories tend to exhibit. These are outlined in this short video from the BBC and in more depth in the last article which deals with the psychological patterns that are manifest in conspiracy thinking.
The Fascinating Psychology of Conspiracy Theories
To believe that the U.S. government planned or deliberately allowed the 9/11 attacks, you’d have to posit that President Bush intentionally sacrificed 3,000 Americans. To believe that explosives, not planes, brought down the buildings, you’d have to imagine an operation large enough to plant the devices without anyone getting caught.
I never knew there really was “psychology” or a “reason” behind conspiracy theorists, I thought conspiracy theorists were just looking for a different perspective. I also have never heard anyone call conspiracy theorists as “motivated skeptics,” and I feel like that’s a neat way of looking at them.
For a log time I never really viewed conspiracy theories to be a massive issue. however more recently the conspiracy theories about Covid and other misinformation have cost over 500,000 lives. We need to do more to educate people about conspiracy theories and the possible dangers that can come from buying into them as well as how to identify and avoid them.
The spread of conspiracy theories has definitely exacerbated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic specifically in the US. Many people think that it was engineered in Wuhan and brought to the US while others think that wearing masks is a form of government control over the population. No matter the conspiracy, they all make the pandemic more scary and increase the negative effects on our society.
Conspiracy theories I think brings a lot of confusion into peoples lives because it is filled with uncertainty. Some make sense and could be true and others not so much, so people just are frightened. The pandemic is a great example of this. There was a ton of misinformation going around.
Conspiracy theories have always been around through out the years. It is really interesting to learn how the mind works when believing them. I guess my understanding on what it meant was very limited in comparison to what it actually meant. Now that I know that conspiracy theories aren’t something that many of us shrug off.
I read the article Why Conspiracy Theories Flourish During Pandemics and I thought that it was very interesting. Something that stood out to me as I was reading this article is that like conspiracy theories, pandemics are about an invisible and powerful enemy hiding among us. Both are equally contagious.
With the amount of Covid cases in the US, I feel as though it fueled the people who start these conspiracies. Some people believe it was made in a lab, others think it originated from a bat. Some people think that the government is trying to force masks upon us for a fake virus and some think that wearing a mask will completely avoid the contraction of Covid. A lot of people will believe what their political party believes, but it should be more than that. People should be analyzing the facts and comparing them to beliefs or theories. The more people educate themselves about theories, in my opinion, will eliminate a lot of them, or hoping at least.
I fell like conspiracies are the root of what makes science in itself science and that crazy thinking like that lead to people looking into science with a better understadning and more instrated in the super natural of things. It can also be used to not just prove big foot might be a thing, but the basic understanding of the universes, some of the theories brought up were once conspiracies and are now being proved to be more than that.
personally, I believe that conspiracy theories are that gas that fuels science. most of the time they are never true but we make new discoveries when we focus on figuring something out.
Conspiracy theories are very intriguing and it is good to have these questions in my opinion. We have to think rationally as individuals to come up with our own conclusions at the end of the day. I don’t like going down the rabbit hole but often times I do wonder about events in history in religion. Very interesting seeing different perspectives on topics like aliens and ufo’s, covid, magic, etc. I just really enjoy psychology.
Conspiracy theories have always been known about and interesting to read in an attempt to learn to see things in a different way. However, most of them are silly and have no scientific proof behind them. It was interesting to see that there is scientifically studies of why the brain sometimes chooses to want to believe in them and makes it more understandable as to why so many people read and like investigating about them.
I think conspiracy theories are super interesting to think about, but I don’t take alot of them seriously. Some of them are bizarre I’m not sure how people come up with these crazy ideas. Social media has definitely had an impact on this, some things that have no proof to back them up are falsely spread.
I never realized how big of a fuss conspiracy theories have really caused. Especially during this time, there have been so many things spread around about the coronavirus such as where it came and how it formed. When you think about it, it is bizarre because it’s been over a year living in this and people are still listening to these theories rather than scientists and doctors.