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http://www.bps.org.uk/news/why-are-conspirancy-theories-so-popular
The British Psychological Society reports on a new study about why people believe conspiracy theories.
A need for "cognitive closure" leads to many people believing in conspiracy theories, according to a new study.
Research by Dr Karen Douglas of the University of Kent, which is being presented at this week's British Psychological Society's Social Psychology Section conference in Canterbury, examined the extent to which 250 people agreed with theories for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 earlier this year.
Scientists expected that factors such as mistrust, powerlessness and paranoia could influence whether or not individuals believe in conspiracy theories.
However, they also discovered that "the need for cognitive closure and belief in an unjust world" can also play a part if no official explanation exists.
In addition, they found that those who believe in MH370 conspiracy theories also agree with alternative explanations for other notorious events, such as the death of Princess Diana and the 9/11 attacks.
Dr Douglas said this means the psychological predictors of conspiracy beliefs "may be the same whether an official explanation has been established or not".
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Monday September 15 2014, @02:00PM
Or maybe, juuust maybe, more and more we are seeing things that were once called "nutter conspiracy theories" turn out to be 100% true? After all pre Snowden everybody laughed at the "They are monitoring everything you do!" believers as nutbars, for decades people said those that believed the Vietnam war was a false flag were told they were fucking insane until it came out that whoops, turned out Gulf of Tonkin was totally faked and they knew it before ever telling the public or congress, on and on as time goes by we see shit that was once relegated to the "they must be nutbars" pile turn out to be 100% true.
So yeah i can understand why they are popular, because if a world government told me it was raining I'd want a second opinion and as we have seen it really doesn't take too many at the top to be on board to get entire wars started over nothing...Iraq WMDs anyone?
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Monday September 15 2014, @07:34PM
A large number have proven to be true, but a much larger number, by at least a couple of orders of magnitude, have no such evidence. Many of them are clearly ridiculous. Others are just implausible. But many implausible ones have proven true. And distinguishing between ridiculous and implausible depends on who's looking.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Tanuki64 on Monday September 15 2014, @08:04PM
Agreed. I think that generally dismissing all conspiracy theories as crackpot ramblings and always accepting the official explanations is based on the same mindset as dismissing all official explanations and suspect conspiracies everywhere. Some people might need conspiracy theories to feel superior to the brainwashed, unthinking majority. But at the same time some people seem to feel superior by sticking to the always sane mainstream think and distancing themselves from the crackpots.
So, what is true? As in most cases there is no simple answer. Some conspiracy theories are nonsense. Some are true. Some are spread in good faith and are nevertheless wrong. Some are wrong but spread intentionally to hide the truth and discredit alternative explanations.
The consequence is that it is not wise just to dismiss conspiracy theories. Even the most stupid ones might give important hints. For instance if it can be shown that they are spread on purpose to ridicule all alternative explanations. IMHO this means that it is not only necessary to look at a conspiracy theory in general, but also at every single claim.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday September 15 2014, @09:50PM
Well said.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek