What Makes Conspiracies So Believable To So Many People?

Words: 3.502

Today’s Pontificate –   It’s interesting that asking that question at all implies that conspiracies don’t exist.  If that’s so, is that not itself a conspiracy?  Oh, the paranoia!


I’ve always been a bit of a behavioral wonk about humans in general and while my actual four year degree is the Applied Behavioral Sciences I never pursued a career inside any of the behavioral sciences like psychology, psychiatry, or the behavioral health disciplines.  I applied what undergrad skills I had to a satisfying career in varying levels of management and entrepreneurship.  Nonetheless, I try and keep up with pursuing the reasons of why humans  act and think the way they do.  As it implies to my own behavioral nature, I find it enhances a general desire within me to show likely an above average compassion and empathy toward my fellow man.  Now.. that doesn’t mean I am declaring myself as walking-on-water over others.. it just means my general persona that makes up the everyday-me contains this element.

I am also a political wonk of sorts as it has always been a career I wished to break into in my past.  I chose other roads but the interest hangs in there.  My interest in blogging is a kind of merging of the two interests.  While I’ve had, and still have, various blogs, I find myself diving into the lion’s den, so to speak, and following blogs that are outside my own political persuasions.  Actually.. with my current political interests NOT favoring Trump, those “other” blogs I tend to follow are Conservative Trump supporters.. and by now we all pretty much know those folks tend to permeate and echo Trump’s conspiracy theories and manifestations of fear and falsehoods.  Generally Trumpian Conservative blogs prefer to be echo chambers affirming their own fears to each other.  But some blog masters do allow for exchanges from alternative viewpoints, providing there’s a measure of civility.  To those folks I give credit… and I tend to return the respect by dropping out of a discussion for a few days when the frustration level (on both sides) reaches a saturation point.  In the end no one ever convinces, or converts, other opinions.

So.. what have I learned during my years of delving into what ticks with conspiracy theorists?  Well, for one thing, during the last four years of the Trump Era, Trump supporters by far are the prime conspiracy buffs simply because they found a like-minded personification with Trump himself seeing “enemies” around every corner plotting against him.  Although, Trump supporters will claim the Never-Trumpers are consumed by hate.. and any number of their own “conspiracies” as to all the things Trump has done illegal (Russian conspiracies, Ukrainian conspiracies, collusion conspiracies, etc.).  I think we might be able to agree that Trump supporters have the far greater and farther reaching conspiracies, with secret cabals, deep states, and the latest with the election results… a conspiracy of thousands across the nation to commit election fraud just to defeat Trump.  So.. do we presume the 74 million who voted for Trump are all conspiracy followers and the 80 million who voted for Trump are not?  Of course not.  Humans come in infinite varieties.  I would be speaking mostly of the hard core Trump base of supporters, and I have no idea how many that might be.

But let’s go past the politics here and work the theory.  I think it’s pretty accepted that for a “good” conspiracy theory to “work” it has to contain a powerful or influential person, or even a group of people, with a larger goal to pursue as a means to an end, not good for the masses in general.  What makes this all more appealing is that this goal or mission must be a secretive plan.. the kind of secret handshakes and darkened ‘star chambers’. But conspiracy theories also exist on lesser levels.. many times having nothing to do with politics, and many times the routine nature of daily living.  (“The price of gas went up.. it’s all a plot for gas companies to get more money.”)  Let’s quote some ‘stuff’ from sources far more learned than myself on this.


Dr. Noam Shpancer, Ph.D., a professor at Otterbein University, suggests that “Conspiracy theories are by-products of how the brain thinks.”  Dr. Shpancer comes up with four elements that can contribute to conspiracy theories…

Dr. David Ludden, a professor at Georgetown Gwinnett College. follows that up with an additional summation about the tendency to believe conspiracies as being a “need”.. suggesting perhaps a component in the Maslow pyramid.

I don’t normally post an entire article I’ve read on a subject in a blog post but I think in this case it serves to emphasize the entire context and human proclivity to engage in conspiracy theories. Understanding the theories themselves as to the human demographic in the traits of those of us who tend to engage in conspiracy theories as a matter of routine cynicism and discontent.  This isn’t to suggest one who entertains a conspiracy theory has some definable faulty trait.  But certainly one who tends to harbor a continuing cynicism that aligns with conspiracy theories at nearly every turn does indeed suggest a contrary mindset with a possible explanation.

The following is an article by By Jennifer Latson published November 3, 2020 –  You can read it HERE also.

The Mind Of A Conspiracy Theorist:  Why are so many people drawn to conspiracies in times of crisis?





At the core of every conspiracy theory is the idea that a powerful person, or group of people, is secretly hatching a dastardly scheme. Almost anything that makes headlines can spawn these theories, especially when there’s room for confusion about what really happened. In June, when a 75-year-old man was hospitalized after police pushed him to the ground during a Black Lives Matter protest, some claimed he was in fact a paid crisis actor or an “antifa provocateur”—a theory that gained traction when the president posted about it on Twitter. Around the same time, an apparent increase in fireworks displays in New York and other cities sparked similarly baseless rumors that the police were setting them off in an attempt to wage psychological warfare on protesters.




Past health crises, from the AIDS epidemic to the Zika outbreak, gave rise to theories eerily similar to those circulating today about coronavirus. At times like these, conspiracy theories are more appealing than the truth because they offer the possibility of control, Imhoff says. We can thwart an evil plan, at least hypothetically. But we can’t thwart the unseen forces of nature.


“Conspiracy theories make a very tempting promise:Just stop the villain and you get your life back. That’s what we all want,” he says. “It’s a charming narrative that’s very easy to buy into: Just stop Bill Gates from polluting the airwaves with 5G and we can go out again and our kids can go back to school.”




“It’s a worldview that believes nothing happens without a reason and that there are sinister forces at work behind the curtain,” Imhoff says. “It’s a fairly stable worldview, so it doesn’t really matter what happens—that will be their interpretation.”


Still, roughly half of the U.S. population believes in at least one political or medical conspiracy theory, so it’s hard to define these beliefs as abnormal, says UCLA psychiatrist Joseph Pierre. “One thing to emphasize is that we all have needs for closure, uniqueness, and the like. It’s more a matter of some of these needs or biases being stronger among those who believe in conspiracy theories,” he says.


Conspiracy thinking can also be attributed to external forces, including racial and social inequity, that erode our trust in authority figures, Pierre argues. When people lose their faith in official accounts, their search for answers often takes them “down the rabbit hole,” he says. “Most ‘conspiracy theorists’ aren’t theorizing so much as they’re looking for answers and finding ones that resonate with the mistrust that got them searching in the first place.”


Real Dangers



Skepticism toward people in power is part of a healthy democracy, Imhoff argues. It enables the checks and balances that prevent abuses and ultimately protect the public. But people with a conspiracy mindset distrust nearly everyone—especially experts. And that becomes problematic when it leads to an erosion of credibility that puts scientists on the same level as someone who just posted a video on YouTube.


“If I trust the scientist and you trust the guy on YouTube, there’s no common ground between us. And having a shared understanding of reality is essential to society. Without it, there is no truth anymore. That’s a huge danger,” Imhoff says.




Conspiracy-motivated terrorists like McVeigh are rare,Uscinski says, but less egregious examples abound, especially among the new wave of coronavirus-related conspiracy believers. There are the dozens of 5G cell towers that have been vandalized in the U.K. because of the theory that 5G tech is being used to spread the virus—and the rising number of hate crimes against Asian-Americans.




Increased belief in vaccine-related conspiracy theories—including that the vaccines cause autism or are being used to implant microchips—has already led to a resurgence of measles and other preventable illnesses in some areas. And coronavirus-related theories could have even more devastating public health effects. Assuming that a successful coronavirus vaccine becomes available, an Associated Press poll found that 20 percent of Americans said they would refuse the vaccine and 31 percent weren’t sure if they would get it—which could keep the U.S. from achieving herd immunity and put vulnerable people at risk.


Believers of the many competing theories about the coronavirus have one thing in common: an unwillingness to follow the guidance of public health officials, according to research by New York University’s Anni Sternisko and colleagues. Sternisko found that people who bought into these theories were less likely to engage in social distancing or to support public health policies aimed at limiting contagion, regardless of whether they believed the virus was a hoax or a lab-grown bioweapon.


And there’s a good chance that some people who believe the virus is a hoax also believe it’s a bioweapon, Douglas says. One of the quirks of conspiracy belief is that people are able to embrace multiple theories simultaneously—even when those theories contradict each other.


In a study published in 2012,Douglas found that people who believed one conspiracy theory were more likely to believe another, even if it was logically impossible for both to be true. For example, the more someone believed the theory that Princess Diana faked her own death, the more they believed she’d been murdered by British secret agents.

How is this possible?  Douglas concluded that people who are prone to conspiracy thinking are so quick to see a cover-up that they’re willing to let the logical niceties slide. “The core underlying idea of most conspiracy theories is that the official line is not to be trusted. The details might not even matter that much,” she says. “You’re prepared to at least entertain the two ideas at the same time, even if they’re not consistent with each other, because they are consistent with the idea that you need to be on your guard against the official explanation. You just know something is up.”


The problem for believers is that embracing these theories is an ineffective way to deal with our anxieties, Douglas says. They offer a sense of certainty, but they also make us believe that malevolent forces are out to get us, which in most cases is scarier than the truth.  “That can make you feel even worse—more out of control, more uncertain,” she says. “It becomes a bit of a cycle.”


Putting Out the Fire

How can we stop conspiracy theories from spreading? It’s a critical question, especially now, researchers say—and there’s no easy answer. After all, conspiracy theories have always existed, and no amount of counterevidence has been able to change the minds of people who still think the moon landing was fake or that JFK’s assassination was the work of a “deep state” conspiracy.










“When we poll about the moon landing conspiracy, we find only about 5 percent of people buy into it. Given how many people have heard of it, which is almost 100 percent, you’d think that number would be higher,” he says. “Why isn’t it? Because people have filters. They don’t believe everything they read.”


On the other hand, banning individuals who post these theories—as Facebook and Twitter did with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who claimed, among other things, that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged—could give their claims more credence among those who are predisposed to believe conspiracy theories, Sternisko argues.


“People who are prone to believe conspiracy theoriesmight take this as evidence that Jones is onto something and got censored because the government didn’t want people to hear it,” she says. “There is some data showing that these steps can backfire.” Sternisko and other researchers say the most successful efforts to fight conspiracy theories give people the tools they need to question false claims for themselves.


“We should make people more science-literate and more media-literate,and these things can be taught early on,” Uscinski says. “There is some evidence that courses in critical thinking actually work in making people less susceptible.”




I know.. a long read, but well worth the exploration.  Another element of the conspiracy theories as they relate to the pandemic is the idea of how numb we have become to the horrific statistics and death counts.  As of this writing the total deaths in America exceed that of World Wars One and Two, and each day’s death toll meets or exceeds the death toll of 9/11… that’s EACH DAY!  We’ve built monuments to our war dead and the victims of terrorism and we present our horror of those tragedies and our sympathies to the survivors…. yet we’ve grown complacent on the huge death count of this “war”.. and most just go on with their lives.  I am reminded of the constant body count on the evening news each night during the Vietnam War years and how that seemed to get a similar complacent response after ten years of fighting there.


It’s not that we don’t care as a nation.  But it’s a kind of survival mechanism.. that we give the horrors some pause, but life still does go on and we tend to pidgeon hole our emotions in order to carry through our day.  Compounding that is also the complete feeling of helplessness to do anything about it given the immense politics, the poor national response toward fighting the pandemic, the failing economy… a completely paralyzed Congress.. and now a transitional government amid chaos and turmoil.  It’s a “learned” or acquired helplessness that includes dodging the barrages to our social norms.  On top of that is the social distancing and mask wearing to further separate us.. even from family.  We are in a helluva mess as a nation right now.


But we will make it.

Now what?


  1. beetleypete

    I am quite proud of believing in some conspiracy theories. I’m still unhappy with the Kennedy assassination, for example. And the first ‘Moon Landing’? Yeah, right…like that happened.
    When so much effort goes into covering something up, or trying so hard to ignore plain thruths, then there has to be something ‘behind that curtain’.
    And don’t get me started on 9/11!
    Best wishes, Pete.

    • Doug

      LOL! Good reply, Pete. 🙂 Sometimes it is what it is.. simply a hobby. 🙂

  2. lobotero

    You were so right…a long read…..I think it could be boiled down to the cause of the popularity these days is social media (as you have accurate pointed)…..I wish I could see a new day dawning (so to speak)….but all I see is more of the same silly stuff. Good Post chuq

    • Doug

      Actually.. “same silly stuff” right about now might feel better than what we’ve had for the last four years. But I understand your hope for a new day dawning in what we do and how we do it. How do you get 325 million Americans to agree on anything? I certainly have no answers.

  3. Salvageable

    I had to come back and reread this post (skimming your citations of other posts the second time through) before I was able to frame a useful reply. Much contemporary “conspiracy theory” thinking and feeling is fueled by the 1970s discoveries of Watergate, CIA activities, and FBI activities. Americans came to realize that those in power sometimes do plot and scheme against the better interests of the nation and the world. It’s easy to lump all the conspiracy theories into one package and laugh them all away–treating concerns about an overreaction to the COVID virus or perceptions of election fraud as the equivalent of Satanist pedophile Masons running the Democratic Party, the news agencies, Hollywood, and the National Basketball Association. But if Harvey Weinstein’s crimes and Andrew Wakefield’s flawed vaccine-autism data really happened, then how many other crimes and conspiracies might be corrupting our politics, our science, our education, and our lives? J.

    • Doug

      Of course there are small conspiracies.. the larger they are the more difficult to control (ala Watergate).. but over the years the beliefs in conspiracies has gotten to a point where it “obviously” has many people.. even up to thousands as is currently assigned to the alleged election fraud. All that is way too much to fathom seriously. This is one reason to appreciate the media…. difficult as that may sound. It’s been the mainstream media that has unlocked all those past conspiracies. But Trump people prefer the nonsense of Right wing alt-media sources without a whole lot of credibility. I tend to think people are generally moral and have a measure of pride and dignity in their work. So to presume the media is on the take or responsive to whacko bosses or they get fired.. is not in the least mainstream.

      • Salvageable

        When I was in college in the 1980s, a speaker came to campus representing the main stream media. He indicated that most people who take jobs in the mainstream media are politically liberal and used Reagan in the White House to prove that such liberals were not swaying the nation. Even if there was no election fraud last month in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta–and I believe that more evidence of such fraud will be unveiled in the coming months and years–how much did the media’s unrelenting attacks upon President Trump shape the outcome of the election in those cities, and thus in the nation? And is that not a conspiracy of sorts–not a back-room Illuminati sort of conspiracy, but still consorted effort in the liberal media to assist Biden and hinder Trump? J.

        • Doug

          Perhaps the question to ask is why is there a tendency.. assuming that in itself is correct… for Liberals to take media jobs in the first place.


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