Why People Believe in Conspiracy Theories
Understanding the psychology of Conspiracy Theories
Popularly known conspiracy theories in this world are that 9/11 is an inside job, Barack Obama wasn’t born in the USA, Vaccines cause autism, Jews let down Germany in 1914 in WW1, and Jews brought communism to Russia. One big conspiracy theory that perhaps changed history was Iraq had WMD, which brought down Saddam Hussein and also created various militant and terrorist groups like ISIS.
There are multiple high-profile people who made their career out of propagating such conspiracy theories, including Alex Jones and Donald Trump, where controversies over their statements and speeches.
What is a Conspiracy Theory?
Is Conspiracy Theory a lie or is it misleading information, or something else? There exists no clear-cut definition for the term. In Psychology, Conspiracy Theory will have the following elements.
Pattern- What distinguishes a lie from a conspiracy theory is that there is a clear-cut pattern and narrative present. X leads to Y, and Y leads to Z, so X leads to Z is the justified derivation with both X and Y working together for Z.
Agency- There exists an agency which is always made part of a conspiracy theory. Which is, most of the time- the government, a religious ethnic or social group, or even an institution or a company. An agency is also expected to be powerful or influential in nature and will be able to pull off an action.
Coalition- The existence of more than one entity involved in something.
Hostility- Conspiracy theories are not so if they don’t have antagonistic of an individual, entity or institution.
Secrecy- Unlike lies, a high level of secrecy and a shady picture exists and the truth of the matter cannot be confirmed. The conspiracy theory itself refers to a “conspiracy” which is hidden from the larger public.
Conspiracy Theories-Should we care or not?
More than just a piece of false information, fake news or a fake narrative, it does have a place in society whether we are part of it or not. Conspiracy Theories have existed as long as Human beings have been here, it is currently there and will continue to be.
Misinformation- Undeniably, most Conspiracy Theories propagate false information that is a lie. Say like, that 9/11 was an inside job which means people don’t consider it a terror attack or believe that govt of the US was involved in bringing down the twin towers. Both are false. Similarly, such conspiracy theories can also prove to be extremely dangerous, like conspiracy theories about the pandemic, which can put people’s lives in danger, like people who are reluctant to accept vaccines or even the ones which can determine the outcomes of elections like Brexit and Trump’s victory in 2016, wherein in both scenarios fake news and narratives did play a major role in flipping the election either side.
Dangerous- Thus the danger of populists taking over your political system and damaging it for a very long time stands. Similarly, conspiracy theories on guns also do more harm than good in the long term. Vaccines, Guns etc.
Lack of trust- Once you start believing in such theories, it will reduce your trust in people, agencies, institutions and most importantly the government. Now you will live your life with total suspicion. Hence you will be forced to go behind cult personalities.
Brexit- By a small margin, Britons voted to exit the European Union. By looking at hindsight, it is proven that a large percentage of people voted by believing misinformation and various conspiracy theories. Today, Britain is massively suffering from the same.
Trump’s election- Similarly 2016, the election of Trump, a cult personality and anti-establishment populist, was also because of the propagation of lies and conspiracy theories. Similarly, the 2020 election stealing campaign and January 6th all represent consequences of the same. He himself has been responsible for the propagation of multiple lies and conspiracy theories.
COVID-19- 2020 was a year marred with conspiracy theories on the disease. This includes that this is a bio-weapon, lab leak theory, it was already predicted ages ago in some books and a lot more.
Vaccines- One very familiar Conspiracy theory on vaccines is that it is built and used by Bill Gates to make money or the fact that companies make use of the situation to earn profits and also that vaccines do long-term harm, which is all not proven till day. Anti-vax pollution in the West is very much high in the West than in the East, and conspiracy theories have played a major role in this. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the anti-vax population has prevented the eradication of Polio from the face of the Earth.
Lack of trust in institutions- The most damaging aspect is that it will lead to people losing trust in the institutions they are bound to be trusted. In 2020, people didn’t trust that the election in the USA was fair; similarly, people were questioning the credibility of COVID-19 numbers in their countries. If 9/11 is an inside job, then the CIA and US government have lost their trust, as well as in India, people have raised questions about the Supreme Court. The case of the January 6th Insurrection also indicated that faith in the system is absent for a certain section of society.
Why do people believe in Conspiracy Theories?
As this article is psychology oriented, we will explore the reasoning behind why people accept and propagate them. Psychologically there are two broad reasons- Situational and Personality. Situational refers to the way in which circumstances in life affect a person. This forces people to believe in something which people otherwise won’t.
For example, the 9/11 incident is a situation that had the potential for people to speculate something. People don’t believe in randomness and want to keep connecting everything. Personal refers to the surroundings that affect that individual, forcing people to believe in them. Like if you lose your job, you will lose trust in the firm, which will force you to believe that there is something or a vested interest in doing such a thing.
Other reasons are uncertainty and fear backed by a lack of optimism in life. If you have nothing else to do and nothing in your life is going great, you tend to project your personal life as collective truth. This will lead to you believing in things which facts that are working against you. For example, if you lost your job during the pandemic, you tend to believe that China created the virus to end jobs in India. Similarly, the love jihad conspiracy theory in India was based on people believing that religious conversions diminish your religion.
The myth that big consequences have Big Causes- Asteroid hitting the Earth is an accident or is it a planned one? The road accidents are coincidences or planned actions? Could COVID become a big pandemic if there was no planning? Trump losing the election is a big conspiracy?
Need for a pattern- Psychologically, people are always interested in patterns. People comprehend things better if they have some kind of connection. If there are no connections, the brain tries to establish one. They are not interested in random events or things to be seen as such. For example, you randomly given ten numbers or names of places will not be of any use; instead, if you say that those digits are of a person’s phone number, it makes more sense to you.
Agency detection- Almost all conspiracy theories have the importance of agency or a massive force behind them. People try to connect big events or incidents with big actors. It was not an accident, and someone is behind it. Even if an accident or an event occurs, people feel suspicious that this wouldn’t have taken place without someone working on it. When 9/11 occurred, people believed that the twin towers wouldn’t have fallen without any internal help, maybe the CIA or someone trying to carry out an implosion.
Sociology of conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theories cannot be understood as a mere manifestation of the mind; rather, it includes large sociological aspects as well. The social setting, the society you are part of, and the social environment play a significant role in creating and propagating conspiracy theories.
Us vs Them logic- The role of in and out groups in society as well as the identity of the person, plays a major role in why people are into conspiracy theories. This combines with the personal feelings of the individual and how it translates into mistrust and scepticism about the other group. With this, you will see all the issues through a single lens.
Topics like Religion, Ideology, Victimisation, Minority-Majority debate, and Elite vs Populist debate, are all examples of this. For e.g.- A Muslim is highly likely to believe that Jews are working against his religion and people. This was also prevalent during the cold war between capitalists and communists. Extremists believe in them more than moderates. Similarly, the proliferation of fringe groups has contributed a lot to this.
Fear of Govt or a strong entity- People fear centres of power and also wouldn’t easily accept their legitimacy. Whether you trust an institution or not plays an important role in whether you believe a conspiracy theory or not. Whom you trust or not definitely plays a weightage here. Most of the anti-vaccine campaigners are anti-government; hence they will believe that vaccination is an attempt by the government to control their bodies, which need not be true. Similarly, conspiracy theories involving Bill Gates will believe that he is a bad guy, working against common people because he is a popular billionaire.
Social Media and Loneliness- In this age of technology at their fingertips have overpowered people to use them wrongly and get influenced in the most shambolic way possible. People who are lonely and spend a lot of time on social media are likely to believe in whatever comes onto their feeds. They are also vulnerable to falling into echo chambers where everything is about questioning and also one-sided views on everything.
In addition to that, their acceptance in online communities more than in the real world makes them prey to an alternative reality which is pumping in more such theories which are far from reality. Most of the followers of populist leaders are part of this problem whether it be Trump, Bolsonaro, Modi, Imran Khan, etc. as well as figures like Jordan Peterson. This is known as social alienation.
Why does this happen?
Conspiracy theories are products that exhibit negative emotions. They can also be outbursts of anger, fear and hatred. Anger against the government, fear and hatred against other communities, agencies, religions, ethnic groups etc. The lack of trust in institutions, governments, agencies, companies etc., also propagates such theories. The hate in society also manifests in the form of conspiracies and also narratives which will build on like stories.
The popular titles like Jews are conspiring against us, Muslims want to destroy us, the Pharma companies don’t want people to get cheap medicine, critical race theory is a conspiracy against whites, the US attacked Iraq because of the oil, Democrats want to turn the USA to a communist nation, Congress party in India is working with Pakistan to bring down Modi, work on the above-mentioned principle.
Another reason attributed is the uncertainty in life (both personal and collective), which is extremely reflected in marginalised groups, those groups ignored by the mainstream, socially isolated, followers of a particular personality mostly a religious, political, or motivational figure which banks on uncertainty and fear of future events.
As you might have already observed, the pandemic was a time period which gave birth to a lot of conspiracy theories which is primarily due to uncertainty on what will happen the next day as well as due to the lack of activity. They don’t want us to reach great heights, they don’t want us to be in good jobs, and governments privileging certain groups over us are examples which expand on personal experiences and uncertainties in life.
Even a basic conspiracy like the topper of your class is conspiring with a teacher by acting friendly to get marks, you getting scolded in class because the teacher does not want you good marks etc. are also emanating from the same.
Fighting Conspiracy Theories
We need to care about them because it explains the faulty nature of society and the world we live in. We need to tackle without which such incidents, as mentioned in the effects, will continue to occur and create bigger problems. The sheer number of deaths during the pandemic indicated how some people took it quietly lightly, costing millions of lives across the world. Similarly, everyday decisions like taking vaccines, the school you choose, the work you opt for, the life decisions you make, and how you interact with friends and people of other communities also is impacted by them. Fighting them is essential on that basis.
At the personal level, Fact-Checking is a prominent way to counter lies, conspiracy theories and almost all forms of misinformation. With the advent of Donald Trump’s media presence, media across the globe have taken fact-checking to be an essential part of media and journalism. You yourselves can fact-check your friends, family, relatives, colleagues and larger community circles both online and offline. Most WhatsApp forwards are propaganda pieces, misinformation, fake and half-truths.
Good governance is another way in which policymakers can play a larger role in fighting conspiracy theories. Better governance would also require efficient policy-making and inclusive and transparent functioning of institutions. This can help governments from being the target of such narratives which can also avoid incidents like January 6th, terror attacks, mobocracy and breaches of state institutions.
Governments must also enhance their trust in people to make them trust in governance as well. Like in the case of vaccines, governments can step in and convince people. Better governance will also improve various communities and prevent their marginalisation leading to social harmony.
At the community level, more active participation and interaction with other communities and the population will help people overcome commonly held notions of other communities. Only countries which have had a robust way of keeping the country united and in harmony have succeeded.
Conclusion
It is not the first time conspiracy theories have existed and hence they will continue to exist forever as long as humanity exists. Finding the causes of its occurrence can help us fight it better, which would be our focus. Let us not fall into the trap of those theorists who want us to do the blame game. Fighting conspiracy theory requires your individual contribution as well as community and various policy levels.
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