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Understanding the Roots of Conspiracy Beliefs: Psychological Insights

This research paper delves into why individuals gravitate towards conspiracy theories, exploring the definition and implications of conspiracies. It examines how events are interpreted through the lens of conspiracy, highlighting human cognitive biases like patternicity and agenticity. The paper references significant cases like the JFK assassination and the 9/11 attacks, addressing the psychological mechanisms that support conspiratorial thinking, such as confirmation bias and hindsight bias. Ultimately, it aims to foster awareness of these cognitive patterns in discerning conspiracy beliefs.

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Understanding the Roots of Conspiracy Beliefs: Psychological Insights

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  1. Research Paper TopicPresentation Chris Chia-haoChianglin | Jun. 14

  2. Introduction • TOPIC: Why Do People Believe in Conspiracies?

  3. What is “conspiracy”? Conspiracy =Conspiracy theory Lie Myth Hoax

  4. What is “conspiracy”? • According to Wikipedia: “A conspiracy theory explains a historical or current event as a result of a secret plot by exceptionally powerful and cunning conspirators to achieve a malevolent end.” Malevolent: having or showing a desire to harm other people

  5. What is “conspiracy”? • Michael Shermer • With a documentary filmmaker • Exposing the conspiracy behind 9/11

  6. What is “conspiracy”? • M: You mean the conspiracy by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to attack the United States? • DF: That’s what they want you to believe. • M: Who is they? • DF: But didn’t Osama and some members of al Qaeda not only say they did it? • M:They gloated about what a glorious triumph it was?

  7. What is “conspiracy”? • DF: Oh, you’re talking about that video of Osama. • M: That was faked by the CIA and leaked to the American press to mislead us. There has been a disinformation campaign going on ever since 9/11.

  8. What is “conspiracy”? • Disinformation: • false information that is given deliberately, esp. by government organizations

  9. Relevant to the audience • Examples: • JFK assassination • Moon landing • SARS • 3-19 shooting incident • …

  10. Relevant to the audience • By realizing how do we/people believe in conspiracies, we may be more conscious, before we choose to believe in conspiracies, of what is going on in our mind and then make judgments.

  11. Research Question • QUESTION: Why Do People Believe in Conspiracies?

  12. Supporting information • Conspiracy theories connect the dots of random events into meaningful patterns with intentional agency. • Patternicity • Agenticity

  13. Supporting information • Patternicity • the tendency to find meaningful patterns in random noise • Agenticity • the bent to believe the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents

  14. Supporting information • Add to those propensities the confirmation bias and the hindsight bias, and we have the foundation for conspiratorial cognition. • Confirmation bias • Hindsight bias ↓A tendency to a particular kind of behavior

  15. Supporting information • Confirmation bias • seeks and finds confirmatory evidence for what we already believe • Hindsight bias • tailors after-the-fact explanations to what we already know happened Tailor: make or adapt sth for a particular purpose.

  16. Conclusion • “When something momentous happens, EVERYTHING leading up to and away from the events seems momentous, too.”

  17. References • Conspiracy theory. (2011, June 10). Retrieved from the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory#Study_of_conspiracism • Shermer, Michael. "Why People Believe in Conspiracies." Scientific American. Scientific American, Inc., 10 Sep. 2009. Web. 31 May 2011.

  18. TheEnd

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