Conspiracy Theorists Are Even Dumber Than You Thought

by evanmcmurry

A new study confirms what you’ve always known*:

For example, while it has been known for some time that people who believe in one conspiracy theory are also likely to believe in other conspiracy theories, we would expect contradictory conspiracy theories to be negatively correlated. Yet, this is not what psychologists Micheal Wood, Karen Douglas and Robbie Suton found in a recent study. Instead, the research team, based at the University of Kent in England, found that many participants believed in contradictory conspiracy theories. For example, the conspiracy-belief that Osama Bin Laden is still alive was positively correlated with the conspiracy-belief that he was already dead before the military raid took place. This makes little sense, logically: Bin Laden cannot be both dead and alive at the same time. An important conclusion that the authors draw from their analysis is that people don’t tend to believe in a conspiracy theory because of the specifics, but rather because of higher-order beliefs that support conspiracy-like thinking more generally.

In other words, no amount of arguing about the melting point of steel or gun registries or anything else will convince people who believe this stuff; it’s the conspiratorial nature of the theory that attracted them, not the theory itself. Which means the guy barking at you to wake up and stop being such a sheeple is actually the most likely to believe any crazy thing you tell him so long as it conforms with his cognitive template. You’re welcome to point this out to him, but it’s your funeral.

* How did you already know? False flag!