Conspiracy Theory The psychology of conspiracy theorists

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What Is... The Psychology Behind Conspiracy Theories

This post explores the psychology behind why so many people (1/4 of Americans!) buy into conspiracy theories like qAnon.

mentalhealthathome.org

According to Scientific American, a conspiratorial perspective is “the idea that people or groups are colluding in hidden ways to produce a particular outcome.” The Conspiracy Theory Handbook identified seven characteristics of conspiratorial thinking:

• Simultaneously holding contradictory beliefs
• Extreme levels of suspicion
• Presumed nefarious intent of the suspected conspirators
• A belief that there’s still something going on persists even if specific ideas about the conspiracy turn out to be false
• Self seen as persecuted victim
• Any new contrary evidence that comes along is reframed so that it somehow supports the conspiracy theory
• Every event is taken as having a specific meaning rather than being random

Illuminating:

Some of the factors that can promote conspiratorial thinking are:

• anxiety
• feelings of powerlessness, lack of control
• uncertainty
• feeling alienated/unwanted
• personal or collective crisis/threats
• unusual events
• narcissism-related paranoia

 

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