- List and explain the 7 traits of conspiratorial thinking.
Contradictor: Conspiracy theorists can belive multiple contradictory ideas at the same time because they have a lack of trust in officials despite the fact that the idea itself is controversial.
Overriding suspicion: Skepticism thinking that comes from nowhere towards officials. This thinking prevents them from accepting the truth
Nefarious intent: It always has something to do with evil subjects.
Something must be wrong: The conspiracy theorist’s conclusion is always connecting to a statement that is something must be wrong. In most cases, they are spreading false information.
Persecuted victim: Conspiracy theorists always claim they are the victim. Also, at the same time, they see themself as a brave hero who is willing to fight against evil conspirators.
Immune to evidence: Evidence that counters a theory is re-interpreted as originating from the conspiracy. This reflect the belief that the stronger the evidence against a conspiracy, the more the conspirators must want people to believe their version of events.
Re-interpreting randomness: A small random event can be reinterpreted as being caused by the conspiracy.
- According to Lewandowsky and Cook, why do people believe in and share conspiracy theories?
According to Lewandowsky, There are mainly four reasons why do people endorse conspiracy beliefs
- Feeling of powerless: when people feel powerless and vulnerable they are more likely to accept conspiracy beliefs.
- Coping with threats: It allows people to get involved within an event by blaming a set of conspirators. When something big happens, conspiracy theories satisfying people need for a big event to have a big cause.
- Explaining unlikely event: When something out of our knowledge occurred, we tend to use conspiracy thinking to fill the blank.
- Disputing mainstream politics: Conspiracy theories are used to dispute mainstream political interpretations. Conspiracy groups often use such a narrative to claim minority status.
- Use what you learned answering questions 1 and 2 to speculate about 2 of the Coronavirus conspiracies described in “Coronavirus Is Spreading — And So Are the Hoaxes and Conspiracy Theories Around It.” For each of the 2 conspiracy theories identify some of the traits of conspiratorial thinking you see in it and explain why people believe it. For each theory, discuss whether believing or sharing it might cause harm in the real world.
Coronavirus obviously has caused instability in the current socaity. A lot of people’s lives have been affected by the pandemic in a deep way. Many people become unemployed; All sports events are suspended and most importantly people are forced to stay inside. Despite all the conflict that COVID 19 has inserted in our society, among those, conspiracy theories about why and how did start? are thriving. I believe one of the main reasons that conspiracy theories are going out of hand is because most affected victims are lower and medium social class members. They are the one who is struggling the most and desperate to get out of this pandemic and most powerless ones.
