t started as a discussion during a men’s lunch. Strong voices were rising and then antagonistic. The two were arguing over whether the moon landing was legitimate or was it actually filmed around Sudbury. Could the ”first man on the moon” simply be a conspiracy? I didn’t follow conspiracies back a dozen years ago but there is plenty now to deliberate about.
It seems that there is a conspiracy theory for just about everything, from 9/11 to President Obama’s birtherism. I looked at many of these theories a little closer. Once limited to fringe groups, they have emerged as a cultural phenomenon. Widespread around the world, some are commonly believed by the majority of the population.
A study commissioned by the Ontario Medical Association suggests the spread of
COVID conspiracies online is highest in Toronto and Eastern Ontario amid the surge of
the Delta variant. Anti-vaxxer’s claim vaccines could cause polio or that recipients will
be implanted with a chip.
“The New World Order” is taking over and believed to have their headquarters under the Denver International Airport. Theorists cite the airport’s unusually large size, its distance from Denver city center and with its alleged Satanic symbols is where a group of international elites control governments, industry, and media organizations.
Conspiracy theories are rife and entertaining to a broad swath of the population. The stereotype is that conspiracy theorists are crazy, that they are paranoid and that they shouldn’t be listened to. How can we be sure of that? We can’t… and it isn’t backed up by the research. It’s not just the paranoid fringe who believe in them, either. Therefore how do we decide what’s reasonable and what’s ridiculous?
Donald Trump was a conspiracist when he was president. He saw conspiracies everywhere, and he proclaimed them. As the president of the United States, he had the capacity to impose his own compromised sense of reality on the nation. And he may return to office in four years!
Research suggests that we’re all conspiracy theorists to a degree, thanks in a large part to our mental makeup. Inherent cerebral biases are “wired into our heads”, dictating the degree of conspiracy-minded we are.
These shortcuts that our brains take can lead us to suspect a conspiracy has occurred, whether it has or not. Psychology says, “It all begins with our instinctive desire for control over our circumstances and to make sense of what’s going on around us.
‘When that feeling of control is stripped away, we look for other sources – called compensatory control. Conspiracy theories are one manifestation of this need.
Sometimes our brain is so secure at finding a fit for patterns of conspiracies, even if not there. For example one time I saw a neighbour with another man’s wife at a midway.
This pattern screamed ‘affair’. Before I could share, I overheard someone discussing how nice it was for these two volunteers helping out with a youth group. Misinformation halted in its tracks.
Random connecting the dots (perception) of world events with a shot of the supernatural thrown in is one mechanism accounting for conspiracy theories.
Our brains’ bias can assume that any ambiguous event was destined to happen, usually to ourselves. This bias (paranoia) blames someone or something else. Often we say “the devil made me do it.”
My cousin Dave unquestionably believes the Clinton Foundation was involved in human trafficking of children for illicit means. That far-fetched thinking is a bar set way too low from my viewpoint.
Next is ‘proportionality bias’, that the causes of events must be as big or as important as the events themselves. JFK assassination conspiracy theories are a perfect example – assassinated by a lone madman? It had to be the KGB or the Mafia to fit the scale of the crime – which it wasn’t.
Both the left and right sides in politics are as conspiratorial as one another; they simply use information differently. Because these thinking patterns are hardwired, it’s difficult to change anyone’s minds.
‘Why do we believe the things we believe? Is it based on the good, objective, and fair survey of the best available evidence, or might we be falling into some of the traps laid down by our own built-in biases?’
