What leads some people to believe in many conspiracy theories?
There are people who like to make a conspiracy out of anything, and believe all the nonsence stories. What is it about some people that leads them to go with the odd explanation? Is it an attention thing? Or somethign about wanting to be in the minority? Or just gullability? But I suppose it will depend on the person.
Answer by Jay
There’s been quite a lot of research into this area.
They usual score very highly on paranoid traits when it comes to personality tests (unsurprisingly). What’s also really interesting is that despite claiming to be big thinkers, they’re very selective about the ‘evidence’ they cite. More interesting, they tend to go with a somewhat illogical conclusions ‘it was aliens’ or elaborate government hoaxes which, to the rational mind, aren’t believable.
Have a look at the link at the bottom which might help answer your question.
I think it’s important to separate trolls from conspiracy theorists though as over the net it might be harder to spot the distinction between the two.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
It depend on the person and the state his in if he has nothing to do he will create those stories
I know a few people like that. It does seem to be that each one is different in some way, but this they all have in common and to different degrees.
One guy is obsessed with conspiracy theories involving alien stuff. He seems pretty normal otherwise, but don’t mention aliens to him unless you have a few hours to kill…lol.
Another guy is obsessed with conspiracy theories involving the government. He too seems fairly normal, he’s just a bit ‘quirky’.
But one married couple I know seem to feed each others need to find a conspiracy in everything! I don’t even see them anymore. Everything in life is negative to them.
I think some people just have empty, shallow lives and are attempting to fill their lives by gossiping about anything and everything, and blowing things up to seem sooooooooo important. For those people, it IS an attention getting thing.
Some people who engage in conspiracy theories are quite intelligent people, but their brains are wired differently than most.
They could be schizophrenic or obsessive compulsive, which both drives them to interpret things differently.
It’s actually quite fascinating to me. If I had the time, I’d love to do a study about people who are so deeply involved in conspiracy theories.
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.
Sometimes it is due to paranoia (look at the top one): http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=paranoia+conspiracy+theory&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
This paranoia is not necessarily of the unwell version, but is more to do with heightened suspicion.
However, suspicion is at natural tendency of humanity.