Fake moon landings and the Loch Ness monster: What makes conspiracy theories stick
In the mediaeval text, Vita Sancti Columbae (Life of St Columba), the monk Adamnán of Iona describes an encounter between the revered missionary St Columba and an “aquatic monster”. It was the year 564 AD, so the story goes, and as he travelled through Scotland spreading the word of Christ, St Columba once reached the banks of the river Ness. Desirous of crossing the river, St Columba instructed one of his companions to retrieve a boat moored on the opposite shore. As the loyal acolyte dove into the water, a terrifying monster emerged from the river’s murky depths. All but St. Columba were frozen with fear. “Thou shalt go no further, nor touch the man; go back with all speed”, he is believed to have thundered, and thus chastised, the creature dutifully disappeared. Indeed, so potent was this invective that centuries later, when hundreds gathered in the Scottish Highlands in late August this year to search for the Loch Ness Monster, there was still no sign of this mythical beast.
The legend of “Nessie”, as the Loch Ness Monster is affectionately known, has birthed an industry and attracted millions of tourists over the years. And it is far from being the only conspiracy theory to have garnered a global following. The success of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s lunar mission, Chandrayaan 3, is a good time to remember that though five decades have passed since Niel Armstrong set foot on the moon in 1969, theories about the moon landing hoax continue to thrive in the dark corners of the internet. In a 2021 survey conducted in the United States, 29 per cent of the respondents disagreed or were unsure when asked if NASA’s Apollo mission astronauts actually landed on the moon. Similarly, 25 per cent of the people surveyed by the TRESCA research project in the European Union believed the moon landing had been faked.
For the devout conspiracy theorists, there is no dearth of material. They can, for instance, dip their toes in the belief that global affairs are orchestrated by secretive cliques, like the Illuminati or the New World Order; or embrace the more fanciful notion that the Earth is flat. The Covid-19 pandemic had, of course, generated its own share of conspiracy theories that could be added to this list. While some contended that the vaccines would implant microchips in people, there were others who viewed it as an insidious means of population control. It is tempting to dismiss these instances as the peddling of peculiar tales by the fringe but a study conducted across 24 countries by the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project in 2022, made some sobering findings. Of the countries surveyed, the study noted that “India had the highest average proportion of people answering ‘definitely or probably true’” to queries about popular conspiracy theories. (A quarter of the Indians surveyed believed the moon landings were faked and nearly half believed a secret group rules the world.)
What is it about these hoaxes that can make even the bizarre seem compelling? Some experts believe that evolution has programmed us to entertain a healthy suspicion about the world we inhabit. Early humans lived in a hostile environment — with the ever-present threat of lurking predators or an ambush by a rival tribe — and their very survival depended on being wary. Our scepticism, therefore, is inherited from the paranoia that kept our ancestors alive. This innate distrust about certain facts or events, spurs people to search for like-minded souls and build communities that are committed to discovering the “hidden truth”.
Within these communities, confirmation bias operates to entrench the opinion that is the common cause of its members. Any piece of evidence that is contrary to the espoused belief is ignored, and rebutting arguments — no matter how tenuous — are marshalled to preserve the sanctity of the group’s belief system. This rallying kinship can engender a collective sense of superiority, as members of the group become convinced they are privy to a reality the oblivious masses cannot perceive. The conviction that they have a unique insight into the workings of the world can, according to psychologists, help people feel more in control. It can give them succour and make them feel secure in their environment.
In the midst of the myriad uncertainties that plague our lives, who has not grappled with the existential quest for control? But what makes some people gravitate towards eccentric speculations in order to make sense of the world? In his book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, the psychologist and best-selling author Steven Pinker attempts to find an answer.
Pinker argues that people interact with the world in two ways. The first is what he calls the “reality mindset”, where we apply reason and rely on evidence to verify a belief. We apply the reality mindset when interacting with our immediate environment and to complete the humdrum tasks of everyday life. The second, more nebulous, aspect is the “mythology mindset”, that allows us to accept the constructed narratives that turn the wheels of modern society: Money, nationhood, religion, and so on. Our belief in these concepts is not predicated on an empirical enquiry because, as Pinker writes, “submitting all of one’s beliefs to the trials of reason and evidence is an unnatural skill”. Instead, our minds are adapted to accept certain beliefs without needing them to be true; and it is this pre-disposition of the human psyche, that allows conspiracy theories, hoaxes, etc., to flourish.
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Having established the cause, Pinker suggests that rational thinking and cognitive reflection can act as a cure for the pitfalls of the mythology mindset. In the post-truth era, where misinformation and fake news can cause serious harm, there is undoubtedly a need for us to embrace the virtue of rationality advocated by Pinker. But truth be told, it is a little dispiriting to imagine a world where even benign conspiracy theories – like the one involving Nessie – are erased by reason.
If the hundreds who joined the Loch Ness Monster hunt a few days ago were to deploy their reality mindset, they would likely conclude that searching for a fictitious creature is bound to be a futile exercise. But if their mythology mindset inspired them to spend a joyful weekend in the wilderness, who are we to stop them?
The writer is a Mumbai-based lawyer
This article has been archived for your research. The original version from The Indian Express can be found here.
