[acb-hsp] One Reason People Might Believe in Conspiracy Theories

[peter altschul]

One Surprising Reason People May Believe Bizarre Conspiracy 
Theories
  Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune Magazine April 25, 2011
  K now any conspiracy theorists? No doubt they've tried to 
convince you that man didn't really land on the moon or President 
Obama was born in Kenya.
  In fact, they were imparting genuinely interesting information 
-- about themselves.  New research suggests belief in such 
theories may reveal a Machiavellian mindset.
  "At least among some samples and for some conspiracy theories, 
the perception that `they did it` is fueled by the perception 
that `I would do it,`" University of Kent psychologists Karen 
Douglas and Robbie Sutton write in the British Journal of Social 
Psychology.  "These studies suggest that people who have more lax 
personal morality may endorse conspiracy theories to a greater 
extent because they are, on average, more willing to participate 
in the conspiracies themselves."
  The reasons people persist in believing conspiracy theories -- 
even when there is overwhelming evidence debunking them -- have 
long been debated by psychologists.  One credible theory contends 
convincing ourselves of conspiracies allows us to avoid 
acknowledging the terrifying arbitrariness of life.
  "In a strange way, some conspiracy theories offer us accounts 
of events that allow us to retain a sense of safety and 
predictability," British psychologist Patrick Leman noted in New 
Scientist in 2007.  "Instability makes most of us uncomfortable."
  Douglas and Sutton aren't denying that fear avoidance plays a 
role, but they're pointing to a different (perhaps complementary) 
phenomenon.  In some cases, they argue, belief in conspiracies is 
a matter of psychological projection -- that is, the tendency to 
apply one's own attitude to others.
  In one study, 189 British undergraduates completed the MACH-IV 
questionnaire to measure their level of Machiavellianism (that 
is, their tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal 
gain).  This involves expressing one's level of agreement with a 
series of statements such as "The best way to handle people is to 
tell them what they want to hear." They then read a series of 17 
statements describing well-known conspiracy theories and rated 
their plausibility on a 1-to-7 scale.  They also rated the 
likelihood that, if they were in the shoes of the alleged 
conspirators, they would have taken part in the conspiracy.  The 
researchers found that "personal willingness to engage in the 
conspiracies predicted endorsement of conspiracy theories." So 
did a propensity to manipulate others for personal gain.  "For 
example," they write, "highly Machiavellian individuals were 
seemingly more likely to believe that government agents staged 
the 9/11 attacks because they were more likely to perceive that 
they would do so themselves, if [they found themselves] in the 
government's position."
  A second study refined these results.  A group of 60 
undergraduates participated in the same experiment, but half of 
them were first asked "to spend a few minutes thinking of a time 
when they helped another person." Those who had been 
contemplating their own act of kindness were less likely to agree 
with the conspiracy theories -- with the exception of those who 
scored high on the Machiavellian scale.
  "We do not argue that projection alone explains why people 
believe in conspiracy theories," the researchers caution, but 
these findings point to a potent psychological mechanism that 
helps explain why some rumors refuse to die.
  The theme of the conspiratorially-minded television series The 
X-Files was "trust no one." Perhaps it should be amended to read: 
"Trust no one -- especially devoted fans of The X-Files."
  Tom Jacobs is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years 
experience at daily newspapers.  He has served as a staff writer 
for the Los Angeles Daily News and the Santa Barbara News-Press.  
His work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago 
Tribune and Ventura County Star.
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