The Psychological Effects Of Conspiracy Theories

What if what you had been told your whole life was a lie? How would you feel if everything reported about a terrorist attack or a shooting was actually a conspiracy by the United States? What is a conspiracy? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a conspiracy is “a secret plan made by two or more people that is harmful or illegal”. There are so many conspiracy theories out there in the world starting as early as the 1800s. These theories range from scientific, terrorist, criminal, political, economic and business, and even religious conspiracies. The two conspiracy theories that I am talking about is the attack that changed the United States, as we knew it, the one that we believed was a terrorist attack, also known as 9/11, and the Sandy Hook shooting. There are multiple reasons that lead me to consider these two attacks to be something more than a terrorist and criminal attack. The reasons are because the timelines do not add up, there are too many inconsistencies, and the benefits are too great.

Brian Keeley’s short essay, “Of Conspiracy Theories” discusses conspiracy theories and their value in an epistemological context. Keeley defines a conspiracy theory as “a proposed explanation of some historical event (or events) in terms of the significant causal agency of a relatively small group of persons-the conspirators-acting in secret (Keeley 1999, pg. 116).” Keeley seeks to answer the question of why conspiracy theories are unwarranted. His interest in the warrant of conspiracy theories focuses on ¬the unfalsifiability of conspiracy theories and how conspiracy theories are founded upon an extraordinarily large amount of skepticism. In section III, Keely discusses what a conspiracy theory is, and contends that there is no grounds for

The Internet has played a large role in my interest in conspiracy theories. Although I definitely do not believe all of them, they are fun to look into and are good tools for procrastination. Falling deeper into the hole that is Wikipedia, I spent a large amount of my free time “researching” them. It got to the point where I had to force myself to actually work on homework instead. However, I am not one of those crazy conspiracy theorists; I am only interested in ones that seem legit. All interesting conspiracy theories have similar qualities. A majority of them involve the government or celebrities. And depending on the theory, they are believable.

Additionally, she also uses compelling anecdotal evidence to support her argument that the brain of a rational person forms these conspiracy theories as it is a human tendency to latch onto interpretation of facts as they become available. The writer also uses scientific terms like amygdala and theories such as ‘confirmation bias and the ‘backfire effect’ to persuade the readers that conspiracy theories are formed by rational people due to psychological reasons.

On September 11, 2001 the World Trade Center buildings one and two were attacked. However, who we were attacked by and even if we were attacked is a hard decision to make. There have been many different claims about how everything on that fateful day happened. There are facts that we know are true, though; Flight 11 flew into the North Tower at eight forty- six in the morning. Soon after, Flight 175 attacked the South Tower. By the end of the day, both towers had collapsed and other hijacked flights had caused damage. The amount of lives lost on September 11 was substantial; 2,749 people from eighty-three different countries died from the attacks (Facts about the attacks…, n.d.). All in all, America was changed forever.

When a person is introduced to a conspiracy theory, it has the potential to severely affect the way they view the world, as well as the way their brain processes information. With numerous theories surfacing in the world, and more than 50 percent of Americans believing in at least one conspiracy; it is hard to determine which are real, and which are fiction. As a result of conspiracy theories people stop trusting each other and become less social. An experiment instructed by Sander van der Linden,a Dutch social psychologist in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, show that the belief in conspiracy theories can cause a person to be less pre-social. In his experiment Dr. Linden separated his participants into three groups, the first group watched a video about conspiracy theories of global warming, the second group watched a video about taking action on global warming, and the third group was a control group which did don't watch any video.   Studies conducted by Willem Prooijen,a social and organizational

Perfectly sane minds possess the possibility of creating the most fascinating narratives. Conspiracies are a way to react to being powerless or uncertain. Economic recessions, terrorists’ attacks, and deaths of the young and famous happen and when they do people do not know what to think or believe. Their minds react in overdrive

A conspiracy theory, in it’s purest form, describes a hypothesis concerning an incident in which more than one person is involved. Since 1963 more Americans have believed in a conspiracy against Kennedy than have believed in a single assassin working alone (Majority in U.S. Still Believe JFK Killed in a Conspiracy). After years of investigation, evidence continues to prove the majority of Americans wrong. There was only

Thunder and lightning crashing from the high heavens, scaring you out of your mind. You turn to your safety device, a blanket. It’ soothing and helps ground you from the terrifying ordeal you are going through. The same thing can be said of conspiracy theories, they help to comfort people from uncertainty and fear, and that’s why people believe them. An example would be JFKs assassination, simply put a man by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed the president single handedly. There was a great deal of fear surrounding

Maggie Koerth-Baker touches on the dangers of people believing in conspiracy theories. She gives specific examples in which belief in a conspiracy theory has had dangerous real-world consequences. I’m going to tell you about a conspiracy theory that I think is causing havoc in the real-world.

People come up with crazy ideas all the time, many of which are torn apart by scientific evidence. However, some ideas are crafted so precisely and detailed; they are accepted as fact by millions of people. These alternatives to accepted history are known as Conspiracy Theories, and the people who create them are of a special breed. It is difficult to imagine having the time and passion to craft an alternative reason behind many of the world’s events and tragedies, but these people are born to do so. There is a specific recipe for such a person, a carefully crafted powerful concoction that breeds the hatred for government and the quest for the “truth”. Such people have been around for thousands of years,

William K. Clifford, a great mathematician and philosopher of the 1877 authored the essay The Ethics of Belief. In this famous essay he wrote about how it is always wrong to believe anything that does not have concrete evidence. Although people always have different opinions, beliefs based on bad or incomplete evidence are always wrong no matter what. I believe what Clifford says in this essay about bad evidence because when people believe things that are not true it could negatively affect another person’s life. Clifford gives two examples one of a boat and one about gossip, which helps demonstrate how not having concrete evidence to support one’s statements can negatively impact people around them.

The possibility of financial gain from the event by Larry Silverstein and stock holders and the benefits of a psychological attack on the American people by the Bush Administration are what have been understood as the reasons for unrest (Avery: “Loose Change”). Though shocking evidence and explanation has been presented the majority of the American public refuses to believe in the 9/11 conspiracy or even consider it. Whether it be because of lack of interest or because of the inability to find logic in believing 9/11 was an inside job, more attention needs to be put forth at the possibility of conspiracy. By analyzing the psychological studies of commenters on 9/11 conspiracy videos, shocking results can be found that can explain why there isn’t enough interest in conspiracies. Whether it be a lack of interest due to its minimal effect on one’s personal life or a wish to avoid government attention due to a fear of getting involved in something he or she shouldn’t, there is a need to put more attention forth toward the conspiracy theory that is in plain view and easily accessible for research.

Conspiracy theories have always been easy to spread amongst the American population due to common lack of trust for the American government. An example of which being the incident of Roswell, New Mexico. On one dreadful summer night in 1947, something crashed in a corn field in the middle of New Mexico. Little was known of what crashed that night, and it was because of this lack of identity that caused the common population to assume the worst, an extraterrestrial encounter. Slightly before this news of an alien spaceship crash, there were numerous reports of flying saucers being seen flying above Roswell, New Mexico (DiSpezio para 12). It was because of this increased interest in such things as extraterrestrial life that

The definition of a conspiracy theory, according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary is, “a secret plot that is largely unknown to the general public” (Webster 84). Dan Brown focuses on an unusual conspiracy in his novel, The Da Vinci Code. The religious conspiracy theories suggested in this novel discuss secrets of epic proportions that have the potential to shatter the foundations of Christianity. “Behold the greatest cover-up in human history!” (270). Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code proves everybody loves a conspiracy.