Scientists have discovered why we believe in conspiracy theories
Recently, among the Americans conducted a survey, which showed that a third of them believe that the coronavirus has an artificial origin and created us to death in secret laboratories. Moreover, two-thirds of respondents believe that the US government hides information about contact with aliens, and 4% even believe that reptilians rule the world. Scientists believe that conspiratorial thinking is not a sign of "dark" and the suggestibility of the person and a specific phenomenon which affects all segments of society.
The conspiracy theory draws not only Americans. In 2018 VTSIOM conducted a survey among our fellow citizens and found that 67% of Russians believe that the fate of the planet accomplishes a "one world government". 51% of them have higher education and 53% have informed that consider themselves to be wealthy groups of the population.
Reptilians can secretly live among us
Psychologists say that conspiracy thinking is a feature of the human brain. Our mind is arranged in such a way that we believe in conspiracy theories regardless of what people belong to, what education they have and what kind of society are.
To understand why we tend to believe in conspiracies and secret societies, you need to find the definition of "conspiracy theory". It is quite a difficult task, as most modern formulations leave much to be desired.For example, a very authoritative Oxford English dictionary argues that conspiracy theory describes the events that occurred as a result of a secret conspiracy. Other editions give a very similar explanation. But every minute in the world there are crimes that are committed by group of persons in collusion, but they do not relate to the conspiracy.
Conspiracy theorists always doubted the landing of American astronauts on the moon
Dutch psychologists, Jan-Willem van Proyen and mark van Vugt, the authors of scientific work "Conspiracy theories: psychological mechanisms" proposed characteristics of conspiracy theories:
That is to say, the canons of the genre. But there are other signs of such theories is less obvious. Psychologists have identified this feature as the lack of evidence for that conspiracy theory is rather a plus than a disadvantage. It is impossible to prove a link between vaccines and autism, but that's why the theory of the conspiracy is especially popular. Her supporters are sure that this is a sign that the mystery keep especially strict.
In the management of the world conspiracy theorists often suspect of the masons
But if the evidence is there, the conspiracy theorists also interpret in favor of his theory. According to them, it speaks very skillful distortion of the facts, which only the powerful secret force. Given this, any disputes with supporters of conspiracy theories is a waste of time.
Another sign is the perfection of the attackers. It is known that even a small conspiracy to organize secretly incredibly difficult. Will always interfere with the human factor — people make mistakes, argue, betray, are captured emotions. Conspiracy theorists believe the authors of the conspiracy is all-powerful and fantastically considerate. Thousands of people participate in their dark deeds, but none of them make mistakes.
It is also important that any conspiracy theorist speaks from a position of the Prosecutor and count on its objectivity is not necessary. Facts in favor of their theory they have, but the official version is always a lot of tricky questions.
Technology 5G mobile Internet is often accused of brainwashing people
The logic for the conspiracy is working. Psychologists Mike wood and Karen Douglas once conducted an interesting experiment — they invited a group of people three versions of the death of Osama bin Laden. One of them was real, and the other two with conspiracy and also contradictory.
Interestingly, study participants who believed in one conspiracy theory, did not rule out the veracity of the other, though it was contrary to their chosen. This proves that the facts for the proponents of conspiracy theories are not important — they simply believe or do not believe because of the nature of his thinking.Primary among these features is the need for control. A person must believe that his life is managed and it is subject to strict logic. The idea that our fate is a chain of coincidences, frightening and distressing to us. The second important role of the scientists give to the reassessment of competence. Many of us, watching a brief video on YouTube, immediately start to feel experts and to talk about difficult things.
Home conspiracy theorists prefer to uncover a conspiracy in the kitchen
Well, the latest — works "error of proportionality". We used to think that the cause of the event is commensurate in scale with the event itself. So no one wants to believe that U.S. President John Kennedy was assassinated just a mentally unbalanced guy, and Princess Diana died in the accident.
Keywords: Conspiracy theory