What makes rational people believe irrational things?

Conspiracy theories describe what adherents believe to be secret plots by powerful and malevolent groups to control, impoverish or harm hard-working people. Many conspiracy theorists share the conviction that information is being concealed from them by “elites” or “the deep state.”

Belief in conspiracy theories is widespread and harmful. They can significantly affect people’s lives and are largely driven by negative emotions. In the following column, I shall examine some of the social and psychological factors that promote the belief in conspiracy claims.

One of the best known recent conspiracy claims that resulted in real-life consequences was the 2016 Pizzagate theory that claimed there was a pedophilia ring linked to members of the Democratic Party. Proponents of the theory in late October of that year claimed that Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington, was a meeting ground for satanic ritual abuse.

Then in early December, a 28-year-old man from North Carolina went to Comet Ping Pong and fired three shots from a rifle inside the restaurant. The man later told police he had read a fake news story online that claimed children were being sexually abused in the basement of the Comet restaurant and he wanted to free them.

The profusion of sophisticated fake news websites and the sheer number of credulous user posts dealing with a particular conspiracy topic reinforces the impression that a credible claim is being made. As Robert Caldini wrote in his excellent book Influence: Science and Practice, “we determine what is correct by finding out what other people think is correct.”

Conspiracy claims such as Pizzagate, find a receptive audience with people who subscribe – often unconsciously – to nativism, racism and xenophobia. Many of these conspiracies believe that governments, large corporations, media and political elites represent excessive authority and threaten democratic values.

Karen Douglas, professor of social psychology at the University of Kent in England, has written that the reason many people, including QAnon supporters, turned to extreme explanations for the COVID-19 pandemic is because important psychological needs for social belonging, certainty and security are not being met.

Survey data collected at the University of Pennsylvania suggest that nearly a third of U.S. adults think the coronavirus is a bioweapon created by the Chinese government. “Conspiracy theories make people feel as though they have some sort of control over the world,” according to lead investigator David Romer. “They can be psychologically reassuring, especially in uncertain times.”

Joshua Hart and Molly Graether, two psychologists from Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., have tied schizotypy, a personality trait defined by eccentricity and suspiciousness of others, to belief in conspiracy theories. They write that people who see the world as a dangerous place and those prone to think meaningless information is profound are also more likely to embrace such narratives.

Last year, researchers at Emory University reviewed 170 studies that involved 160,000 participants dealing with the psychology of conspiracy believers.

Overall, they found that the strongest correlates of conspiratorial ideation pertained to five identifiable traits: perceiving danger and threat in their world, following their gut instincts, having odd beliefs and experiences, being antagonistic and acting superior. Conspiracy followers were also more likely to be insecure, emotionally volatile, impulsive, suspicious, withdrawn, manipulative, egocentric and eccentric.

Some of the strongest and most consistent correlates of conspiracy theory beliefs involve psychological and political characteristics marked by the “dark triad” of personality traits – narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, a construct coined by Paulhus Delroy, University of British Columbia.

Julia Aspernas at in Linkoping University in Sweden investigated the relationship between susceptibility to misleading information and the conviction that truth is relative. The results show that those who believe that the truth is subjective are more likely to believe conspiracy theories and to hold on to their beliefs even when faced with facts that contradict them. They also have a greater tendency to find profound messages in nonsense sentences.

One of the most prominent psychological traits found in people who tend to believe in conspiracy claims is their tendency to project. In other words, to ascribe to others disowned and highly negative parts of their self, such as secret sexual attraction to children. By denying their existence in themselves and attributing them to others, they can feel good and guiltless.

The Babylonian Talmud (500 AD, the primary source of Jewish religious law) notes the human tendency toward projection and warns against it: “Do not taunt your neighbour with the blemish you yourself have.” In the New Testament, Jesus warned against projection: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye.”

A very different approach to understanding conspiracy proponents and believers is offered by David Batchelor in his 2000 book Chromophobia. Mr. Batchelor argues that a chromophobic impulse, a fear of corruption or contamination through colour, permeates much Western culture.

That may manifest itself in white supremacist groups and movements such as QAnon, the infamous torchlight march in Charlottesville, the bitter resistance to removing Confederate monuments and the like.

In times of economic uncertainty, artificial intelligence, climate change, an influx of refugees in Western countries – all of these events create uncertainty in the sense that the world one grew up in and knows is changing. In this atmosphere people’s fears rise and they tend to revert to a bunker mentality, characterized by a fear of the “others.”

The majority of conspiracists are quite fanatical in their beliefs. Even when a claim is proven false, they will find another conspiracy theory to explain why the original claim did not pan out.

In that respect, I find the 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s insights on how to fight fanaticism quite instructive. Nietzsche asserts that certain types of stories possess significant power, capable of altering our personalities. He suggests that narratives of resentment, in particular, are effective at fostering fanaticism.

For instance, adherents of groups such as the Proud Boys or Islamic State perceive feminism, liberalism or those who oppose their beliefs as the root cause of their suffering, rather than taking responsibility for their own problems. When one’s identity is intertwined with grievances, such narratives promote a hostile attitude toward the perceived oppressors and justify any actions to oppose them.

A leader who knows how to exploit these fears can get his or her followers to drink the KoolAid at his or her command.

Research has found the typical rational person who is willing and often quite eager to adopt irrational conspiracy beliefs lives in times of economic uncertainty and whose psychological needs for social belonging, certainty and security are not being met.

They perceive danger and threat in their world, tend to suspiciousness of others, especially if they are not of the same racial group. They avail themselves frequently of the psychological mechanism of projection, blaming others for their own failures or deeply hidden fears.

On average, they are inclined to be insecure, emotionally volatile, impulsive, withdrawn, manipulative and egocentric They are prone to be antagonistic and to acting superior.

Conspiracy claims offer them some sort of control over their fractured world. Such people exhibit a lack of empathy and a tendency towards manipulation, showing readiness to employ any means necessary to achieve their goals because they believe that they are on the right side of history and the means justify the ends.

Conspiracy theories are like viruses or bacteria. They have been present in the past and they will be with us in the future, but they can only harm us when our immunity is compromised. We know how to protect our health and boost our resilience to infections. We can do the same for combatting the spread of conspiracy theories.

To resist words that incite to hate and violence is a complex task that can only be achieved by a co-ordinated effort on multiple levels: the legislative, social, economic, educational and personal. The more we learn about conspiracies, the individuals who contrive them, spread them and believe in them, the better we shall understand them, and the more we shall manage to thwart them.