Conspiracy theories are explanatory beliefs about a group of actors who collude in secret to achieve malevolent goals. They are abundant in social and political discourse, with serious consequences for individuals, groups, and societies. Despite hundreds of studies examining belief in conspiracy theories, it is unclear who demographically is most likely to believe them. To remedy this, a study was conducted using the American method to measure the predisposition to interpret events and circumstances as the product of real-world conspiracies (conspiracy thinking).
Beliefs, even conspiratorial ones, do not occur in a vacuum; they reflect social conditions and fulfill important identity needs, including access to social networks. Sociologists refer to conspiracy theories as a form of collective behavior that gains traction as it appeals to many. Conspiracy theories have been understood as either alternative sociological theories or misguided social science, and show how sociology tends to be misguided.
Conspiration theories have been culturally constructed as quick refutation of other-wise distasteful ideas. A new study by UCI sociology graduate student Saverio Roscigno breaks down conspiracy theorists by education, income, race, and gender. Conspiracy theories are a constant feature of human society, but have recently risen in prominence with the flurry of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and their consequences.
Karl Raimund Popper, who put conspiracy theories on the philosophical agenda, discussed conspiracies as a political reality. A new study by UCI sociology graduate student Saverio Roscigno breaks down conspiracy theorists by education, income, race, and gender.
📹 An In-depth Look at the Psychology and Sociology of Conspiracy Theorists 🧠
Title: An In-depth Look at the Psychology and Sociology of Conspiracy TheoristsDescription:Welcome to our exploration of the …
📹 Why Are Conspiracy Theorists Such Idiots? (A Sociological Analysis)
Why do some people believe the most outlandish of things, with such scant evidence (if any) to support what they believe?
Your brazen ignorance of what an “ad hominem” attack actually is demonstrates my point better than I ever could. An ad hominem is when you avoid a subject and simply smear the character of the opposite ideology. The subject of the article IS the mentality of the conspiracy theorist and the social factors leading to such a mindset. Funny how conspiracy theorists always yammer on and on about the need to “question everything,” but become aghast the moment anyone dare question THEM and their unfounded allegations.
Conspiracy theorists really annoy me. I like your article, it was very well done. Ive suspected for a long time that conspiracy theorists are the way they are because of insecurities… But they are delusional and have paranoid tendencies. Almost like paranoid personality disorder. I’ve delt with people like this and they are very toxic to be around. They also tend to have a mob justice mentality and quick to act as judge, jury, and executioner with what they perceive to be justified “evidence” for their delusions. It’s actually quite scary dealing with these types in real life.
Some conspiracies are not stupid at all and have very good evidence. My mind about conspiracies has started to change when I started to study the moon hoax conspiracy, and I have good qualifications to study it. And studying this conspiracy meant: – Analyze all the photos of the missions (I even downloaded them from the Apollo lunar surface Journal, in order to better study them, because it was not possible to well study them just by visualizing them in the Journal). – Visualize all the articles of the missions, and compare them with the photos – Read plenty of technical documents on Apollo written by NASA engineers in the technical library of NASA – Read articles of newspapers of the sixties. – Explore the national US archives (notably concerning the so called crisis of the cuban missiles). And the more I searched, the more I found undeniably strange disturbing things. Your way of considering conspiracies is extremely superficial; you completely rely on the media, and assume they are the truth; you think it is useless looking for the truth, that it is entirely in the media. In the time of the third Reich, German people also thought that the truth was entirely in their media. I have seen some incredibly stupid things in the media, incredibly weak arguments, total ignorance of real facts. Before getting interested in the moon hoax, I used to visit creationist articles; if have found very stubborn people in the articles, people that it was not possible to debate with, because their mind was completely closed to the fact that their conception might be wrong.
At one point I may have agreed with you, I even found conspiracy theories to be somewhat dangerous due to this, however it is important to question all conspiracy theories and consider the evidence from an unbiased point of view. Part of the problem with “conspiracy theories” is that the masses are socially conditioned to dismiss the possibility without considering the evidence. You are right about Alex jones, he’s a moron. Some “conspiracy theories” are labeled as such to create this conditioned disbelief. Other conspiracy theories are jokes, and some don’t have enough evidence to make a conclusion either way.
I like your ideas and your manner of speech, very much. There is something to be said, though, for good production values. If you are going to contend for attention in a public forum, you will have greater success with more thoughtful background, lighting, grooming, and camera work. It’s a little ironic at 6:00, when you are talking about looking the viewer in the eye; your eyes have disappeared out of the top of the frame, as they do for most of the article. I haven’t looked at your other articles, which I may do because of your intelligent content. But otherwise I would swipe left. No offence meant, just some advice from a retired marketer.
I don’t know my friend but you are wrong about many issues . 1. I didn’t fail at life and I am building a new house right now . 2. I don’t like main-stream entertainment because it’s quite superficial, I preffer the main-stream of the renaissance . What do you learn from songs like ” anaconda ” ? seriously lol I don’t feel left out, in fact I am repulsed that you are a victim of marketing for simpletons . Do you really see Jay-Z, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber as role models ? 3. I don’t show my face on my conspiratorial identity because there is a thing called anonymity which I prefer to keep and I am also a passionate individual when it comes to technology, thus one of my hobbies in this area is to try and be as hard to reach as possible which requires advanced computer knowledge . 4. You got the nerd part right . However stereotyping them as socially inapt is a big mistake . I happen to have a very profound social life, being a musician amongst other things has helped me to integrate very well in human relations and am quite appreciated thus having a very high self-esteem . Nerd simply means to be preoccupied with other things rather than just copying what most people do . 5. I have 2 jobs and a hobby job . 6. I actually give more importance to the hobby job as we should truly do what we like the most because that is what we really are . 7. I have friends who are successful engineers, economists, IT specialists and friends with two colleges that speak 5 languages that are into conspiracy theories .
David Sutton said: “Only if the argument is ad hominem. There is a distance between characterising someone/group as idiots and using that characterisation as your argument to debunk their views as opposed to outlining the risible evidence supporting a position accepted by person or group and then founding the assumption of their idiocy on that acceptance.” The whole thing is to know if what a “conspiracist” supports is always an idiocy. There may be some stupid conspiracies, but not all of them are, far from it. I have posted plenty of articles on my page. If all my articles are stupid, and therefore prove I’m myself stupid, then prove it. Show what’s wrong in my articles, and why they are stupid. Scientifically debunk each of my points, and make relevant points which effectively debunk all my points. Only then you can call me stupid. But, deciding in advance that my arguments are stupid without even having had a close look to them, I don’t call that very intelligent.
It is absolutely crazy that the people that blindly follow one source denounce the rest as “sheeple”. They come up with explanations that are more unlikely then the actual supported by facts that we know of. Could we all be mind controlled and unable to tell? Yeah maybe, but I sure as hell don’t think that Alex Jones would know any better.
It has gotten to where i am unable to talk to a close friend of mine because he has gotten so wrapped up in this entire conspiracy theory nonsense. He watches that silly Jesse Ventura show on a regular basis, he always has some new theory on his mind that he heard from somewhere. His latest one – he found out that somehow the JFK assassination and 911 are tied into the movie Back To The Future. All three things are linked together. It is embarrassing to go anywhere with him because he will start talking to random strangers about this garbage.
DUDE! lol You must be a reformed conspiracy theorist. First question. What are your qualifications? First and last suggestion. Grab a dictionary and look it up..lol I thought you were going to put forward an interesting intelligent argument but I have just spent 13mins listening to a garbled smart alec personal attack on a group of people built around a derogatory and untrue interpretation of what a conspiracy is in REALITY..In fact I would go as far as calling you prejudice.All you really achieved with this vid was to string 13mins of insults together and try to make it sound good. You got bit! “Grrrrr”
thank you for this article. i lost four friends and got on distance to them, because they where hooked up on conspiracy theories. i left them, though knowing them for many years, because i realized they are not good for me. often they where angry towards me, while being angry about something i dont have to do with at all. they wanted quarrel with me about things which made no sense for me. they where often egoistic and didnt show much empathy. AND REALLY: they all broke up with school, dont have a regular work and they really ALL live at flats which belong to their parents or parents would pay the rent.. it really took long for me to say goodbye to them, and understand whats going on with them.. i guess im searching new friends now 😉
What gets me about allot of conspiracy theorists is there willingness to adopt a comic book plot in place of ACTUAL conspiracy. And, all the while acting as only they know what’s REALLY going on – while millions of people have actually lived through and survived the real thing. Why not ditch the weird “there’s aliens living in the moon” BS and join the rest of us living in the real world? You didn’t discover “what’s really going on”.
Excellent article my friend. I suffer family members who think everything is a conspiracy. Having been there when I was younger I know the mentality that it takes to reach that state. I’m glad I overcame it but I had to find things that meant more to me than assuming I knew better and everyone else was ignorant
The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance. Vigilance isn’t corrective, it’s preventative. If we need to take corrective action against conspirators, then we weren’t vigilante enough to prevent the conspiracy to begin with. If a theory is wrong but points out a potential threat, then the theorist was right, even if he was wrong to begin with. They’re not called conspiracy hypothesis. Theories are based in fact. If ThisMayOrMayNotBeSatire Believes that all conspiracy theorists are idiots, then he’s an idiot.
I do not believe in any conspiracy theory at all but I would like to point out that this article is deeply fallacious if it is attempting to argue against conspiracy theories because the argument that ‘conspiracy theorists are idiots’ is an argumentum ad hominem (logical fallacy in which an attack is made on a person/people rather than their argument). The majority of arguments within this article are ad hominem arguments. Furthermore, the host of this article does not define his terms, i.e. he does little if anything to decrease the subjectivity lingering around such terms as ‘idiot’ and ‘conspiracy theorist’. Ergo the undefined terms subjectify his reasoning, invalidating his argument (but not necessarily his point) because of the logical maxim: de gustibus non est disputandum.
When you do not know anything, you have to believe everything. Nescience of a sociatey is the water on the mill of power and subjection of people. Learn hard, study hard, use the knowledge of human kind. Mathematics, Physics, chemistry, those are empirical scientific branches that are alloving the human kind to find answers for problems end benefits. Lerning and higher learning is everything. Knowledge means power. But knowledge must be aproved and credible. The knowledge is there: the elementary school, the university, the library, the archives.
Interesting! – I really liked seeing the vid website. Unfortunately YT for me here on my phone cuts out frequently – its my area not this site but its irritating at times! I am sure we have the same sort of interests and I like this technique you have. When you get some time please check out the similar articles on my website (organised into playlists) and tell me your opinion of them. Any ideas gratefully recieved! Ciao!
Come on! If it’s a proper scientific analysis, you won’t refer to people as “idiots”. You are expected and required to be disinterested and the use of colloquial insults undermines any academic credentials you may have. You could never refer to a group under consideration in an academic paper in such a derogatory way. impartiality is essential in academia. Let’s see some.
Well said perhaps next time show a little more apathy and less generalization ur message made me laugh though because you were just crushing the conspiracy theorist out there. They don’t know the difference between correlation and causation it’s sad. What sucks is some gullible teenagers also fall for it. Anyways don’t be discouraged by the firm believers in unjust social system so they hyperbolize correlations and other absurd similar things. You just helped me solidify my view. You may have no impact on the already Convinced no matter what lunatics but for those who are in the middle keep away from that self destruction path. Watch out for yourself the illuminati is going to eliminate all opposing minds lol. All they do is take advantage of the ignorant there is a difference between being wise and self aware then being wrongly informed and have an fancy word in every sentence until people start believing what they write. Keep on making these articles have real live examples though and use the word most when not using concrete data. For example you could have had explained how the moon landing wasn’t not filmed on earth by using basic photography knowledge Here I found the article explaining it moon hoax not there’s just some people that don’t change technically speaking that would also mean me and you since we won’t ever agree with this so two unstoppable ideals means an everlasting conflict between rationality and irrationality depending on what side u are on there are two ways to interpret that but you acknowledge what I am saying anyways hope I was of moral support for your efforts and good fortune to you
All I got from this article is you believe what the corporate media feeds the public rather than using your own logic (if you have any) to come to your own conclusions. The fact that you disabled ratings says a lot. Because if it were enabled people would see how lost you are before even seeing this article. Your only argument to any logical conspiracy theory is that the government and banker sponsored media says otherwise.