Why Do Individuals Find Conspiracy Theories So Scary?

People are often prone to believing in conspiracy theories due to a combination of personality traits and motivations, such as relying on intuition, feeling antagonism and superiority towards others, and perceiving threats in their environment. Researchers found that reasons for believing in conspiracy theories can be grouped into three categories: the desire for understanding and certainty, the desire for control, and the desire for control.

In social psychology, the fascination with conspiracy theories has increased interest, often associated with secret plots and hidden agendas. A cognitive scientist studied why some people refuse to accept the overwhelming evidence that the planet is warming and humans. Conspiracy theories can lead to harm by causing believers to fear and sometimes act on imagined threats, even as they believe them. In January, a Wisconsin pharmacist was charged with deliberately destroying hundreds of doses of the Covid-19 vaccine because he believed a conspiracy theory.

Conspiration theories may promise to make people feel safer as a form of cheater detection, where dangerous and untrustworthy individuals are recognized and the fear is relieved. This paper argues that the allure of conspiracy theories lies in their evolutionary origins, specifically in our capacity to communicate unrepresented threats. Studies on antisemitic conspiracy theories show they can make groups turn inwards for support and more fearful of others.

Recent political events and the COVID-19 pandemic create the impression that conspiracy theories are spreading more quickly and widely than ever before. The approach to patients with conspiracy beliefs should be similar to dealing with psychotic disorders. Conspiracy theories are everywhere, and this phobia manifests when a person rejects them without an appropriate evaluation of the available evidence.