Conspiracy Confidence

There’s a fair bit of evidence suggesting that people who believe in conspiracies (often several of them, and often the kind that are either easily disproven or predicated on an objectively false bundle of pseudo-data) are attempting to establish a sense of control within a context in which they feel disempowered.

So if the world seems confusing, worrisome, and anxiety-inducing, if things you’ve taken for granted are suddenly tossed into disarray, and if perhaps your sense of stability (economic, social, physical, mental) is called into question, you may be more likely to believe in conspiracy theories.

There have, of course, been real-deal conspiracies throughout history, including those that were for a long time considered to be laughably fantastical, only later to be unveiled as a secret government program or the like.

It’s difficult (perhaps impossible) to differentiate those from the demonstrably false assertions from the outside, as a sufficiently funded and well-planned (real) conspiracy would likely be perceived as the false kind to most rational people.

That said, folks who feel like their world is unstable and their control over their own destinies has been rattled seem to be more likely, on average, to look for and latch onto these sorts of theories, ostensibly because doing so helps them explain those rattled, unstable foundations, while also helping strengthen their sense of being in possession of hidden, ground truths others aren’t smart or capable or connected enough to perceive.