Ep. 6: Your Mind on Conspiracy Theories
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Conspiracy theories have always existed, but with the global pandemic keeping us locked inside and glued to the internet, it seems that these beliefs are becoming more and more common. But are conspiracy theories really on the rise and is social media to blame?
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In this episode, Beth Fisher and Ava Ma de Sousa look into the psychological mechanisms behind these fringe beliefs, the harms they may cause, and who is potentially susceptible (spoiler: it's all of us).
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Academic Articles & Books
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Psychological needs/motives underlying conspiracy theory endorsement: epistemic existential, and social: Douglas, K. M., Sutton, R. M., & Cichocka, A. (2017). The psychology of conspiracy theories. Current directions in psychological science, 26(6), 538-542.
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Cognitive biases:
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Proportionality bias: Leman, P. J., & Cinnirella, M. (2007). A major event has a major cause: Evidence for the role of heuristics in reasoning about conspiracy theories. Social Psychological Review, 9(2), 18-28.
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Agency Detection/Intentionality bias:
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Pattern recognition and perception:
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Covid conspiracy theories and social media: Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Zhang, Y., Lu, J. G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy-nudge intervention. Psychological science, 31(7), 770-780.
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Endorsement of mutually exclusive conspiracy theories: Wood, M. J., Douglas, K. M., & Sutton, R. M. (2012). Dead and alive: Beliefs in contradictory conspiracy theories. Social psychological and personality science, 3(6), 767-773.
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Example of illusory pattern perception - the Kaniza triangle. When the partial circles are configured together the way they are on the left, our brains 'fill in the blank' to show us a full triangle.
Lighter Reading & Other Resources
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NPR Throughline episode on the history of conspiracy theories in the US
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CBC Documentary on MK Ultra
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Psychology Today article on conspiracy theories - featuring many of the researchers we discussed!