I find the psychology of this fascinating. I think many people have an inferiority complex and when they find a news source that exploits that you start to have problems. They develop such an infatuation with certain persons that they can get fed a non-stop diet of complete lies and they will believe it.
conspiracy theories
- Thread starter jalapeno_pretzel
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I find the psychology of this fascinating. I think many people have an inferiority complex and when they find a news source that exploits that you start to have problems. They develop such an infatuation with certain persons that they can get fed a non-stop diet of complete lies and they will believe it.
jamescanuck2001
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 28, 2010
The act of coming to a conclusion before reviewing the evidence manifests itself in so many ways, police investigations, research studies, etc. Too many people come to a premature conclusion, then find the evidence (or fabricate it) to support it.
TeresaBelle
<font color=magenta>Still sleeps with a security b
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2005
So does calling it lymes disease in her first two posts... lol
wenrob
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2008
Except that poster did it right out of the gate. To clarify, I did not say it made someone wrong, I said they’ve lost the argument. They could be 100% right but once you are reduced to name calling and insults credibility and anyone’s willingness to listen is gone.
Notrealname
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 25, 2019
Truth is stranger than fiction.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/202...utm_campaign=VF_Hive_050720&utm_term=VYF_Hive
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/202...utm_campaign=VF_Hive_050720&utm_term=VYF_Hive
Heather07438
WDW Apprentice
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2015
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias
Probably impossible to overcome them all
Some people try harder than others.
mombrontrent
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
My father is a big follower of Q-anon. The theories they come up with are absolutely baffling and insane and I have no idea how people fall for it. I always assumed my dad was a reasonably intelligent person so I don’t get it. I don’t even talk to him anymore because of it. My only communication with him is him sending me conspiracy videos and ideas which I ignore. It’s to bad really but I can’t get passed it.
belle032
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2011
I find conspiracy theories fascinating. Some are harmless and fun, some are infuriating and dangerous, some probably have some truth to them.
If you want to spend your time believing the earth is flat, the moon is a hologram, or Reptilians control world governments then go right ahead. Have fun with it.
If you want to try and convince me the Holocaust or Sandy Hook (or any other school shooting) never happened, don't bother.
If you want to delve into theories such as Operation Paperclip, MK Ultra, Bohemian Grove, Men in Black, UFO sightings, etc, I'm more than happy to listen and discuss because I think there are some truths to them. Not saying they are right or wrong, but I do think our government has their hands in a lot more than we could ever understand or realize.
If you're looking for a fun, very well researched podcast that covers some interesting topics, check out The Last Podcast on the Left (although it is VERY NSFW!) The guys are hilarious, do an awesome job, and really make you think about things!
If you want to spend your time believing the earth is flat, the moon is a hologram, or Reptilians control world governments then go right ahead. Have fun with it.
If you want to try and convince me the Holocaust or Sandy Hook (or any other school shooting) never happened, don't bother.
If you want to delve into theories such as Operation Paperclip, MK Ultra, Bohemian Grove, Men in Black, UFO sightings, etc, I'm more than happy to listen and discuss because I think there are some truths to them. Not saying they are right or wrong, but I do think our government has their hands in a lot more than we could ever understand or realize.
If you're looking for a fun, very well researched podcast that covers some interesting topics, check out The Last Podcast on the Left (although it is VERY NSFW!) The guys are hilarious, do an awesome job, and really make you think about things!
John VN
N.Y. STYLE CHEESECAKE RULES!!!
- Joined
- Aug 2, 2003
Can't fix stupid.
Education begins at home
GEE, seems to me that religion comes to mind as number 1.
Must also wear tin foil/aluminum on one's head. Antenna are optional.
Heather07438
WDW Apprentice
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2015
It is surprising to realize how many people we know double down on the crazy theories. Some of which are nice people, successful people, easy to get along with (otherwise)... it's hard to reconcile when they expose this side.
I had a few coworkers that were all in on pizzagate. Some of the details... just wow.
Last year a SIL started telling me some wacky stuff and I remained mostly silent. Then she said "You wouldn't believe the stuff I'm seeing. I downloaded this news feed to my phone. You want it? You know you can get news updates on your phone." This is someone who never engaged with news before. Now at 50yo decided to go down a weird rabbit hole.
And a ton others on DH's FB, friends from HS. Recently they all started getting the fact check stickers, lol.
jalapeno_pretzel
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 13, 2015
Yes! The people I know that are into all these theories are college educated and successful. I just don't understand how so many can get sucked in like that. Sometimes I wonder if all this massive conspiracy paranoia is going to be the downfall of our country. And, does this phenomenon manifest itself this widespread in other countries, or is it somewhat unique to USA?
DuskKodesh
Marvel Hero in Training
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2019
I can see how someone might fall into some of these. As mentioned in the thread our government/police has a well-documented history of pulling stunts and coverups. Anytime you put something behind a curtain people are gonna guess at what it is. We have whole game shows about it! My nephew used to be big on virus speculation, a slippery slope from his zombie movie binging. I sometimes wonder what his theories are on this pandemic but we haven't talked in a long while.
Then of course some people are more imaginative than others, small lies lead to big ones... and well, George Carlin said it best.
Then of course some people are more imaginative than others, small lies lead to big ones... and well, George Carlin said it best.
Heather07438
WDW Apprentice
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2015
I think we have a certain vulnerability to it. What gives me confidence is the youth of today are getting schooled hard in this. The curious ones with an appetite. They are our hope for the future.
1GoldenSun
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2017
I'm going to paste something from Scientific American. It's behind a paywall so I can't provide a link.
It's too long to post the whole thing so I just chose what seemed like the most pertinent section. If anyone is interested I could copy-paste the whole thing but it's about three time the length of this.
Title:WHY WE BELIEVE CONSPIRACY THEORIES. By: Moyer, Melinda Wenner, Scientific American, 00368733, Mar2019, Vol. 320, Issue 3Database:Business Source Premier
But there are other factors at play, too. New research suggests that events happening worldwide are nurturing underlying emotions that make people more willing to believe in conspiracies. Experiments have revealed that feelings of anxiety make people think more conspiratorially. Such feelings, along with a sense of disenfranchisement, currently grip many Americans, according to surveys. In such situations, a conspiracy theory can provide comfort by identifying a convenient scapegoat and thereby making the world seem more straightforward and controllable. "People can assume that if these bad guys weren't there, then everything would be fine," Lewandowsky says. "Whereas if you don't believe in a conspiracy theory, then you just have to say terrible things happen randomly."
Discerning fact from fiction can be difficult, however, and some seemingly wild conspiracy ideas turn out to be true. The once scoffed at notion that Russian nationals meddled in the 2016 presidential election is now supported by a slew of guilty pleas, evidence-based indictments and U.S. intelligence agency conclusions. So how is one to know what to believe?
There, too, psychologists have been at work and have uncovered strategies that can help people distinguish plausible theories from those that are almost certainly fake—strategies that seem to become more important by the day.
THE ANXIETY CONNECTION
IN MAY 2018 the American Psychiatric Association released the results of a national survey suggesting that 39 percent of Americans feel more anxious than they did a year ago, primarily about health, safety, finances, politics and relationships. Another 2017 report found that 63 percent of Americans are extremely worried about the future of the nation and that 59 percent consider this the lowest point in U.S. history that they can remember. These feelings span the political spectrum. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that the majority of both Democrats and Republicans feel that "their side" in politics has been losing in recent years on issues they find important.
Such existential crises can promote conspiratorial thinking. In a 2015 study in the Netherlands, researchers split college students into three groups. People in one group were primed to feel powerless. The scientists asked them to recall and write about a time in their lives when they felt they were not in control of the situation they were in. Those in a second group were cued in the opposite direction. They were asked to write about a time when they felt totally in control. And still others, in a third group, were asked something neutral: to describe what they had for dinner last night. Then the researchers asked all the groups how they felt about the construction of a new subway line in Amsterdam that had been plagued by problems.
Students who had been primed to feel in control were less likely than students in the other two groups to support conspiracy theories regarding the subway line, such as the belief that the city council was stealing from the subway's budget and that it was intentionally jeopardizing residents' safety. Other studies have uncovered similar effects. Swami and his colleagues, for instance, reported in 2016 that individuals who feel stressed are more likely than others to believe in conspiracy theories, and a 2017 study found that promoting anxiety in people also makes them more conspiracy-minded.
Feeling alienated or unwanted also seems to make conspiratorial thinking more attractive. In 2017 Princeton University psychologists set up an experiment with trios of people. The researchers asked all participants to write two paragraphs describing themselves and then told them that their descriptions would be shared with the other two in their group, who would use that information to decide if they would work with the person in the future. After telling some subjects that they had been accepted by their group and others that they had been rejected, the researchers evaluated the subjects' thoughts on various conspiracy-related scenarios. The "rejected" participants, feeling alienated, were more likely than the others to think the scenarios involved a coordinated conspiracy.
It is not just personal crises that encourage individuals to form conspiratorial suspicions. Collective social setbacks do so as well. In a 2018 study, researchers at the University of Minnesota and Lehigh University surveyed more than 3,000 Americans. They found that participants who felt that American values are eroding were more likely than others to agree with conspiratorial statements, such as that "many major events have behind them the actions of a small group of influential people." Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami, and his colleagues have shown that people who dislike the current political party in power think more conspiratori- ally than those who support the controlling party. Recently in the U.S., a number of unproved conjectures have come from political liberals as conservatives have ascended to control the government. These include the charge that the White House coerced Anthony Kennedy to retire from the U.S. Supreme Court and the allegation that Russian president Vladimir Putin is blackmailing Trump with a video of him watching prostitutes urinate on a Moscow hotel bed.
When feelings of personal alienation or anxiety are combined with a sense that society is in jeopardy, people experience a kind of conspiratorial double whammy. In a study conducted in 2009, near the start of the U.S.'s Great Recession, Daniel Sullivan, a psychologist now at the University of Arizona, and his colleagues told one group that parts of their lives were largely out of their control because they could be exposed to a natural disaster or some other catastrophe and told another group that things were under their control. Then participants were asked to read essays that argued that the government was handling the economic crisis either well or poorly. Those cued about uncontrolled life situations and told their government was doing a bad job were the most likely to think that negative events in their lives would be instigated by enemies rather than random chance, which is a conspiratorial hallmark.
While humans seek solace in conspiracy theories, however, they rarely find it. "They're appealing but not necessarily satisfying," says Daniel Jolley, a psychologist at Staffordshire University in England. For one thing, conspiratorial thinking can incite individuals to behave in a way that increases their sense of powerlessness, making them feel even worse. A 2014 study co-authored by Jolley found that people who are presented with conspiracy theories about climate change—scientists are just chasing grant money, for instance—are less likely to plan to vote, whereas a 2017 study reported that believing in work-related conspiracies—such as the idea that managers make decisions to protect their own interests—causes individuals to feel less committed to their job. "It can snowball and become a pretty vicious, nasty cycle of inaction and negative behavior," says Karen Douglas, a psychologist at the University of Kent in England and a co-author of the paper on work-related conspiracies.
The negative and alienated beliefs can also promote dangerous behaviors in some, as with the Pittsburgh shootings and the pizzeria attack. But the theories need not involve weapons to inflict harm. People who believe vaccine conspiracy theories, for example, say they are less inclined to vaccinate their kids, which creates pockets of infectious disease that put entire communities at risk.
It's too long to post the whole thing so I just chose what seemed like the most pertinent section. If anyone is interested I could copy-paste the whole thing but it's about three time the length of this.
Title:WHY WE BELIEVE CONSPIRACY THEORIES. By: Moyer, Melinda Wenner, Scientific American, 00368733, Mar2019, Vol. 320, Issue 3Database:Business Source Premier
But there are other factors at play, too. New research suggests that events happening worldwide are nurturing underlying emotions that make people more willing to believe in conspiracies. Experiments have revealed that feelings of anxiety make people think more conspiratorially. Such feelings, along with a sense of disenfranchisement, currently grip many Americans, according to surveys. In such situations, a conspiracy theory can provide comfort by identifying a convenient scapegoat and thereby making the world seem more straightforward and controllable. "People can assume that if these bad guys weren't there, then everything would be fine," Lewandowsky says. "Whereas if you don't believe in a conspiracy theory, then you just have to say terrible things happen randomly."
Discerning fact from fiction can be difficult, however, and some seemingly wild conspiracy ideas turn out to be true. The once scoffed at notion that Russian nationals meddled in the 2016 presidential election is now supported by a slew of guilty pleas, evidence-based indictments and U.S. intelligence agency conclusions. So how is one to know what to believe?
There, too, psychologists have been at work and have uncovered strategies that can help people distinguish plausible theories from those that are almost certainly fake—strategies that seem to become more important by the day.
THE ANXIETY CONNECTION
IN MAY 2018 the American Psychiatric Association released the results of a national survey suggesting that 39 percent of Americans feel more anxious than they did a year ago, primarily about health, safety, finances, politics and relationships. Another 2017 report found that 63 percent of Americans are extremely worried about the future of the nation and that 59 percent consider this the lowest point in U.S. history that they can remember. These feelings span the political spectrum. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey found that the majority of both Democrats and Republicans feel that "their side" in politics has been losing in recent years on issues they find important.
Such existential crises can promote conspiratorial thinking. In a 2015 study in the Netherlands, researchers split college students into three groups. People in one group were primed to feel powerless. The scientists asked them to recall and write about a time in their lives when they felt they were not in control of the situation they were in. Those in a second group were cued in the opposite direction. They were asked to write about a time when they felt totally in control. And still others, in a third group, were asked something neutral: to describe what they had for dinner last night. Then the researchers asked all the groups how they felt about the construction of a new subway line in Amsterdam that had been plagued by problems.
Students who had been primed to feel in control were less likely than students in the other two groups to support conspiracy theories regarding the subway line, such as the belief that the city council was stealing from the subway's budget and that it was intentionally jeopardizing residents' safety. Other studies have uncovered similar effects. Swami and his colleagues, for instance, reported in 2016 that individuals who feel stressed are more likely than others to believe in conspiracy theories, and a 2017 study found that promoting anxiety in people also makes them more conspiracy-minded.
Feeling alienated or unwanted also seems to make conspiratorial thinking more attractive. In 2017 Princeton University psychologists set up an experiment with trios of people. The researchers asked all participants to write two paragraphs describing themselves and then told them that their descriptions would be shared with the other two in their group, who would use that information to decide if they would work with the person in the future. After telling some subjects that they had been accepted by their group and others that they had been rejected, the researchers evaluated the subjects' thoughts on various conspiracy-related scenarios. The "rejected" participants, feeling alienated, were more likely than the others to think the scenarios involved a coordinated conspiracy.
It is not just personal crises that encourage individuals to form conspiratorial suspicions. Collective social setbacks do so as well. In a 2018 study, researchers at the University of Minnesota and Lehigh University surveyed more than 3,000 Americans. They found that participants who felt that American values are eroding were more likely than others to agree with conspiratorial statements, such as that "many major events have behind them the actions of a small group of influential people." Joseph Uscinski, a political scientist at the University of Miami, and his colleagues have shown that people who dislike the current political party in power think more conspiratori- ally than those who support the controlling party. Recently in the U.S., a number of unproved conjectures have come from political liberals as conservatives have ascended to control the government. These include the charge that the White House coerced Anthony Kennedy to retire from the U.S. Supreme Court and the allegation that Russian president Vladimir Putin is blackmailing Trump with a video of him watching prostitutes urinate on a Moscow hotel bed.
When feelings of personal alienation or anxiety are combined with a sense that society is in jeopardy, people experience a kind of conspiratorial double whammy. In a study conducted in 2009, near the start of the U.S.'s Great Recession, Daniel Sullivan, a psychologist now at the University of Arizona, and his colleagues told one group that parts of their lives were largely out of their control because they could be exposed to a natural disaster or some other catastrophe and told another group that things were under their control. Then participants were asked to read essays that argued that the government was handling the economic crisis either well or poorly. Those cued about uncontrolled life situations and told their government was doing a bad job were the most likely to think that negative events in their lives would be instigated by enemies rather than random chance, which is a conspiratorial hallmark.
While humans seek solace in conspiracy theories, however, they rarely find it. "They're appealing but not necessarily satisfying," says Daniel Jolley, a psychologist at Staffordshire University in England. For one thing, conspiratorial thinking can incite individuals to behave in a way that increases their sense of powerlessness, making them feel even worse. A 2014 study co-authored by Jolley found that people who are presented with conspiracy theories about climate change—scientists are just chasing grant money, for instance—are less likely to plan to vote, whereas a 2017 study reported that believing in work-related conspiracies—such as the idea that managers make decisions to protect their own interests—causes individuals to feel less committed to their job. "It can snowball and become a pretty vicious, nasty cycle of inaction and negative behavior," says Karen Douglas, a psychologist at the University of Kent in England and a co-author of the paper on work-related conspiracies.
The negative and alienated beliefs can also promote dangerous behaviors in some, as with the Pittsburgh shootings and the pizzeria attack. But the theories need not involve weapons to inflict harm. People who believe vaccine conspiracy theories, for example, say they are less inclined to vaccinate their kids, which creates pockets of infectious disease that put entire communities at risk.
kymom99
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 24, 2008
I couldn’t even watch the whole thing. That woman is clearly nuts in my opinion. Why would someone believe that one lone woman? I don’t get it.
Christine
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 31, 1999
I'm on an site that's geared to my local area and someone just posted the whole thing and has bought it hook, line and sinker. Another person just read it and thinks it's super interesting. The person who posted it has also told the non-believers to quit drinking the "Fauci" kool-aid. It's really sad. I'm going to guess if we researched this latest trash we'd find it's being pushed out by the usual nefarious bot suspects to create divisiveness within the U.S. And these people willingly participate and become the pawns in the game.
FlightlessDuck
Y kant Donald fly?
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2006
Honestly, I think some of it might be an actual mental condition.
FlightlessDuck
Y kant Donald fly?
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2006
I don't usually see them out in the wild, although I have a few time on Facebook recently.
Somebody on a group I am on posted the David Icke video that was removed from Facebook where he says COVID-19 is actually caused by 5G. Regardless of whether or not 5G is safe, it should be pointed out that David Icke is a former soccer play and is a conspiracy theorist. He's the one who popularized the "lizard shapeshifter" conspiracy theory.
Someone else was claiming that Bill Gates wants to give us all a microchip, which he doesn't. Oh, and that he he is trying to decrease the world population through a COVID vaccination.
Somebody on a group I am on posted the David Icke video that was removed from Facebook where he says COVID-19 is actually caused by 5G. Regardless of whether or not 5G is safe, it should be pointed out that David Icke is a former soccer play and is a conspiracy theorist. He's the one who popularized the "lizard shapeshifter" conspiracy theory.
Someone else was claiming that Bill Gates wants to give us all a microchip, which he doesn't. Oh, and that he he is trying to decrease the world population through a COVID vaccination.
wenrob
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2008
Oy. What does Bill Gates supposedly have against us?I don't usually see them out in the wild, although I have a few time on Facebook recently.
Somebody on a group I am on posted the David Icke video that was removed from Facebook where he says COVID-19 is actually caused by 5G. Regardless of whether or not 5G is safe, it should be pointed out that David Icke is a former soccer play and is a conspiracy theorist. He's the one who popularized the "lizard shapeshifter" conspiracy theory.
Someone else was claiming that Bill Gates wants to give us all a microchip, which he doesn't. Oh, and that he he is trying to decrease the world population through a COVID vaccination.
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