Lack of Online Resources Explaining the Psychology Behind Conspiracy Theories

[Calavera]

You know, we see a lot of sites that speak against religion but not enough against conspiracy theories. Wish there were more of them, specifically pertaining to the psychology behind such theories (if they should be called theories).

[Osensitive1]

Great topic. Like conspiracy theories quite a bit when they're encountered, but not enough to seek them out. It's late. I'll contribute tommorrow and we can dig around and share links and delve into the mind of the conspiracy theorist.

[renaeden]

Do you want articles? I haven't looked, but there may be some stuff on Google Scholar.

[Calavera]

I was thinking more like an actual website, but articles are fine. I'd appreciate it if you could link me to a few.

[renaeden]

I found this abstract:

The popularity of conspiracy theories of presidential assassination: A Bayesian analysis
Clark McCauleya, Susan Jacquesa
Available online 28 May 2007.

Journalist T. Bethell (1975) advanced the hypothesis that conspiracy explanations of presidential assassination are popular because people have an irrational need to explain big and important events with proportionately big and important causes. This is a species of consistency hypothesis and clearly predicts that a shot that kills a president is more likely than a miss to be attributed to a conspiracy. Four studies with 80 undergraduate Ss are reported that support this prediction. Three of the studies provided a check on whether conspiracy was overly favored, in the case of successful assassination, by comparison with the normative Bayesian formulation. No evidence of this kind of departure from rationality was found. It appears that people associate conspiracy with successful assassination, not because of any kind of special need for proportionality of cause and effect, but because of a belief that conspiracies are more effective and successful than lone assassins. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

I can get the whole article through my uni's database links.

There is also part of a book here:
http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SoyalAxDItYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA115&dq=psychology+conspiracy+theory&ots=3W9iTSIOdc&sig=dghoZCZN2KqGUOIm_TXmuCMJ8PQ#v=onepage&q=psychology%20conspiracy%20theory&f=false

Heh, that was a long link.
And the internet isn't being friends with me at the moment - pages keep crashing. So I will look more later.

["couldbecousin"]

 I don't trust this thread, I believe sinister forces are behind it.   

[Parts]

I don't trust this thread, I believe sinister forces are behind it.   

Yes I believe he came here to mislead us and hide the real truth



Mostly just nuts but a few links to sites that go into facts and refuting the nuts
http://www.crank.net/conspiracy.html

[midlifeaspie]

You must be one of those people who think we actually landed on the moon.

[eris]

I usually try not to think about this stuff because it then makes me judge the validity of THAT source, and I go in circles.. Im sure there have been lots of secrets plots. I am fairly confident that 9/11 was a conspiracy. I dont know of any websites, sorry.

['Butterflies']

I usually try not to think about this stuff because it then makes me judge the validity of THAT source, and I go in circles.. Im sure there have been lots of secrets plots. I am fairly confident that 9/11 was a conspiracy. I dont know of any websites, sorry.

Denying that 9/11 was the work of terrorists seems to almost be becoming the new "holocaust denial."

I notice that a young Liverpool football player is "under investigation" from his club for tweeting "I ain't going to say attack don't let the media make u believe that was terrorist that did it"



I have no idea if there was a conspiracy or not, but I do think that it was a massive boon for Bush and the far-right in America.

[P7PSP]

I usually try not to think about this stuff because it then makes me judge the validity of THAT source, and I go in circles.. Im sure there have been lots of secrets plots. I am fairly confident that 9/11 was a conspiracy. I dont know of any websites, sorry.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/conspiracy

[Squidusa]

I usually try not to think about this stuff because it then makes me judge the validity of THAT source, and I go in circles.. Im sure there have been lots of secrets plots. I am fairly confident that 9/11 was a conspiracy. I dont know of any websites, sorry.

Conspiracy

 

[Queen Victoria]

You know, we see a lot of sites that speak against religion but not enough against conspiracy theories. Wish there were more of them, specifically pertaining to the psychology behind such theories (if they should be called theories).

Have you considered looking at Richard's posts?  Particularly the ones on putting ones self on ignore.

[Osensitive1]

I'll look for some links later. Though would assume most articles will be more based in the nature of paranoia. What's interesting to me is conspiracy theorist encountered have an outlook on humanity in terms sheep and wolves in shepherd's clothing. Though this doesn't include a place for them; they see themselves as neither sheep nor shepherd. Noticed the indirect association in the op to the concept of religion and liked it, because even though the theorist doesn't every say it, their position is similar to the prophet when drawing parallels.

[Osensitive1]

I usually try not to think about this stuff because it then makes me judge the validity of THAT source, and I go in circles.. Im sure there have been lots of secrets plots. I am fairly confident that 9/11 was a conspiracy. I dont know of any websites, sorry.

Denying that 9/11 was the work of terrorists seems to almost be becoming the new "holocaust denial."

I notice that a young Liverpool football player is "under investigation" from his club for tweeting "I ain't going to say attack don't let the media make u believe that was terrorist that did it"



I have no idea if there was a conspiracy or not, but I do think that it was a massive boon for Bush and the far-right in America.

Like the Kennedy assisination theory, much of 911 theory is based in the eye not agreeing with the ear. There's video evidence which contradicts the infomation that's been fed the public by the powers that be. Used to think the 911 theorists to be nutty until taking the time to listen and see. There's logical reasons for some of the quesitons when concerning video, though much of the other stuff is hard to grasp, personally.