tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/conspiracy-theories-1984/articlesConspiracy theories – The Conversation2024-03-22T02:10:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2261182024-03-22T02:10:41Z2024-03-22T02:10:41ZConspiracy theorist tactics show it’s too easy to get around Facebook’s content policies<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583342/original/file-20240321-26-joql1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C148%2C4257%2C2849&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kuala-lumpur-malaysia-august-25-2013-1168328122">MavardiBahar/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the COVID pandemic, social media platforms were swarmed by far-right and anti-vaccination communities that spread dangerous conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>These included the false claims that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/54893437">vaccines are a form of population control</a>, and that the virus was a <a href="https://theconversation.com/qanon-conspiracy-theories-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-are-a-public-health-threat-135515">“deep state” plot</a>. Governments and the World Health Organization redirected precious resources from vaccination campaigns to debunk these falsehoods. </p>
<p>As the tide of misinformation grew, platforms were accused of not doing enough to stop the spread. To address these concerns, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, made several policy announcements in 2020–21. However, it hesitated to remove “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/751449002072082/?hc_location=ufi">borderline</a>” content, or content that didn’t cause direct physical harm, save for one <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/04/covid-19-misinfo-update/">policy change</a> in February 2021 that expanded the content removal lists.</p>
<p>To stem the tide, Meta continued to rely more heavily on algorithmic moderation techniques to reduce the visibility of misinformation in users’ feeds, search and recommendations – known as shadowbanning. They also used fact-checkers to label misinformation.</p>
<p>While shadowbanning is widely seen as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-shadowbanning-how-do-i-know-if-it-has-happened-to-me-and-what-can-i-do-about-it-192735">concerningly opaque technique</a>, our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X241236984">new research</a>, published in the journal Media International Australia, instead asks: was it effective?</p>
<h2>What did we investigate?</h2>
<p>We used two measures to answer this question. First, after identifying 18 Australian far-right and anti-vaccination accounts that consistently shared misinformation between January 2019 and July 2021, we analysed the performance of these accounts using key metrics.</p>
<p>Second, we mapped this performance against five content moderation policy announcements for Meta’s flagship platform, Facebook.</p>
<p>The findings revealed two divergent trends. After March 2020 the <em>overall</em> performance of the accounts – that is, their <em>median</em> performance – suffered a decline. And yet their <em>mean</em> performance shows increasing levels after October 2020. </p>
<p>This is because, while the majority of the monitored accounts underperformed, a few accounts overperformed instead, and strongly so. In fact, they continued to overperform and attract new followers even after the alleged policy change in February 2021.</p>
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<h2>Shadowbanning as a badge of pride</h2>
<p>To examine why, we scraped and thematically analysed comments and user reactions from posts on these accounts. We found users had a high motivation to stay engaged with problematic content. Labelling and shadowbanning were viewed as motivating challenges.</p>
<p>Specifically, users frequently used “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221111923">social steganography</a>” – using deliberate typos or code words for key terms – to evade algorithmic detection. We also saw <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2021.1938165">conspiracy “seeding”</a> where users add links to archiving sites or less moderated sites in comments to re-distribute content Facebook labelled as misinformation, and to avoid detection.</p>
<p>In one example, a user added a link to a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/17/key-facts-about-bitchute/">BitChute</a> video with keywords that dog-whistled support for QAnon style conspiracies. As terms such as “vaccine” were believed to trigger algorithmic detection, emoji or other code names were used in their place:</p>
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<p>A friend sent me this link, it’s [sic.] refers to over 4000 deaths of individuals after getting 💉 The true number will not come out, it’s not in the public’s interest to disclose the amount of people that have died within day’s [sic.] of jab.</p>
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<p>While many conspiracy theories were targeted at government and public health authorities, platform suppression of content fuelled further conspiracies regarding big tech and their complicity with “Big Pharma” and governments.</p>
<p>This was evident in the use of keywords such as MSM (“mainstream media”) to reference QAnon style agendas: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>MSM are in on this whole thing, only report on what the elites tell them to. Clearly you are not doing any research but listening to msm […] This is a completely experimental ‘vaccine’.</p>
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<p>Another comment thread showed reactions to Meta’s <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2020/08/addressing-movements-and-organizations-tied-to-violence/">dangerous organisations policy update</a>, where accounts that regularly shared QAnon-content were labelled “extremist”. In the reactions, MSM and “the agenda” appeared frequently. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/qanon-is-spreading-outside-the-us-a-conspiracy-theory-expert-explains-what-that-could-mean-198272">QAnon is spreading outside the US – a conspiracy theory expert explains what that could mean</a>
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<p>Some users recommended that sensitive content be moved to alternative platforms. We observed one anti-vaccination influencer complain that their page was being shadowbanned by Facebook, and calling on their followers to recommend a “good, censorship free, livestreaming platform”.</p>
<p>The replies suggested moderation-lite sites such as <a href="https://rumble.com/">Rumble</a>. Similar recommendations were made for Twitch, a livestreaming site popular with gamers which has since attracted <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/us/politics/twitch-trump-extremism.html">far-right political influencers</a>.</p>
<p>As one user said:</p>
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<p>I know so many people who get censored on so many apps especially Facebook and Twitch seems to work for them. </p>
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<h2>How can content moderation fix the problem?</h2>
<p>These tactics of coordination to detect shadowbans, resist labelling and fight the algorithm provide some insight into why engagement didn’t dim on some of these “overperforming” accounts despite all the policies Meta put in place. </p>
<p>This shows that Meta’s suppression techniques, while partially effective in containing the spread, do nothing to prevent those invested in sharing (and finding) misinformation from doing so.</p>
<p>Firmer policies on content removal and user banning would help address the problem. However, <a href="https://about.fb.com/news/2022/07/oversight-board-advise-covid-19-misinformation-measures/">Meta’s announcement last year suggests</a> the company has little appetite for this. Any loosening of policy changes will all but ensure this misinformation playground will continue to thrive.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-researcher-asked-covid-anti-vaxxers-how-they-avoid-facebook-moderation-heres-what-they-found-186406">A researcher asked COVID anti-vaxxers how they avoid Facebook moderation. Here's what they found</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amelia Johns has received funding from Meta content policy award for some of the research presented in this article. She has also received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Booth is supported by funding from the Australian Department of Home Affairs and the Defence Innovation Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesco Bailo has received funding from Meta content policy award for some of the research presented in this article. He receives funding from the Defence Innovation Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marian-Andrei Rizoiu receives funding from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the Defence Science and Technology Group, the Defence Innovation Network and the Australian Academy of Science.</span></em></p>New research shows that even after Facebook made changes to stem the tide of dangerous pandemic misinformation, some accounts continued to thrive.Amelia Johns, Associate Professor, Digital and Social Media, School of Communication, University of Technology SydneyEmily Booth, Research assistant, University of Technology SydneyFrancesco Bailo, Lecturer, Digital and Social Media, University of SydneyMarian-Andrei Rizoiu, Associate Professor in Behavioral Data Science, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223032024-03-20T13:59:13Z2024-03-20T13:59:13ZConspiracy theorists seem to favour an intuitive thinking style – here’s why that’s important<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580680/original/file-20240308-26-fcuzuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5982%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/wrapped-mouth-forefinger-sign-conspiracy-1238620543">Ralf Geithe/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I have been researching the psychology of conspiracy beliefs for seven years now and people often ask me why people believe in them. This is not a simple question. </p>
<p>There <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12568">are many reasons</a> people might endorse conspiracy theories. Something that stands out to me, though, is how our thinking styles can influence the way we process information and therefore <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/11/11/207">how prone we can be</a> to conspiracy beliefs.</p>
<p>A preference for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.2995">intuitive thinking</a>, over <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.3790">analytical thinking styles</a> seems to be linked to endorsement of conspiracy theories. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/11/11/207">Intuitive thinking</a> is a thinking style reliant on immediate and unconscious judgments. It often follows gut feelings, whereas analytical thinking is about slower, more deliberate and detailed processing of information. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/intelligence-doesnt-make-you-immune-to-conspiracy-theories-its-more-about-thinking-style-220978">I’ve written before</a> about how we can develop a more effortful, analytical thinking style to reduce our predisposition to conspiracy beliefs. </p>
<p>Research has shown critical thinking skills have many life benefits. For example, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871187116300384?casa_token=HdOYh26XhEgAAAAA:HYLmEBNeaggtWPqyvt94Mhhi4nNOvzPfji6tud3HPHB2Okhz4mEpzJ9HyX7Hmgal1jl8PkyJew">a study from 2017</a> found that people who scored higher in critical thinking skills reported fewer negative life events (for instance, getting a parking ticket or missing a flight). Critical thinking was a stronger predictor than intelligence for avoiding these types of events. It’s not clear why this is. </p>
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<img alt="Girl thinking with arms resting on a table, arrows in different directions above her head" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580683/original/file-20240308-26-xrwt5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580683/original/file-20240308-26-xrwt5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580683/original/file-20240308-26-xrwt5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580683/original/file-20240308-26-xrwt5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580683/original/file-20240308-26-xrwt5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580683/original/file-20240308-26-xrwt5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580683/original/file-20240308-26-xrwt5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Analytical thinking can make you less likely to believe in conspiracy theories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/thinking-girl-solving-problem-135457706">Marijus Auruskevicius/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>On the other hand, <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/11/11/207">intuitive thinking</a> has been linked to thinking errors. For example, intuitive thinking styles can lead to over-reliance on mental shortcuts, which can also increase susceptibility to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.2995">conspiracy theories</a>. </p>
<p>This can lead to dangerous consequences. For example, greater intuitive thinking has been linked to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08870446.2019.1673894?casa_token=pJXUleitfAQAAAAA:mgqoHZ9oqgTvliAYLVRwbCJET1kDYFE6P3tOsN3jIJjnVvnZq-a1beoHacw67dqGgzZR6hm3KpmY">anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs</a> and vaccine hesitancy.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/29/steve-jobs-and-albert-einstein-both-attributed-their-extraordinary-success-to-this-personality-trait.html">extremely successful people</a>, such as Albert Einstein and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, argued the importance of using their intuition and attributed their achievements to intuitive thinking. </p>
<h2>The value of intuitive thinking</h2>
<p>One benefit of <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MD-04-2017-0333/full/html">intuitive thinking</a> is that it takes little or no processing time, which allows us to make decisions and judgments quickly. And, in some circumstances, this is vital. </p>
<p>People working in <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MD-04-2017-0333/full/html">crisis environments </a>(such as the fire service) report the need to use intuitive thinking styles. During crises, it can be unrealistic to consistently use analytical thinking. </p>
<p>Experienced crisis managers often rely on intuitive thinking in the first instance, as their default strategy, but as the task allows, draw on more analytical thinking later on. Critical and intuitive thinking styles can be used in tandem. </p>
<p>What is important also is that this type of intuition develops through years of experience, which can produce <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MD-04-2017-0333/full/html">expert intuition</a>. </p>
<p>Intuition can be crucial in other areas too. <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01420/full">Creativity</a> is often seen as a benefit of intuitive thinking styles. A review <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01420/full">conducted in 2016</a> of research into idea generation found that creativity is positively linked to intuitive thinking. </p>
<p>Although creativity is difficult to define, it can be thought of as similar to problem solving, where information is used to reach a goal, in a new or unexpected way. </p>
<p>However, it is also important to note that the 2016 review found that combining intuitive and analytical thinking styles was best for idea evaluation. </p>
<h2>What is the solution?</h2>
<p>Now, research often focuses on developing ways to improve analytical thinking in order to reduce endorsement of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027714001632?casa_token=EczBVWzrbWsAAAAA:Hq12hyS1txB3Ia_eM5yCVuReXqoVyGafhz2CTrq5U2JkTDsJs7Wl-LKm7Op_H3JVXWF9K5YQLQ">dangerous conspiracy theories</a> or reduce <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fstl0000188">thinking errors and misconceptions</a>. </p>
<p>However, we often consider analytic and intuitive thinking styles as an either-or, and when making decisions or judgments we must choose one over the other. However, a 2015 <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bdm.1903">meta-analysis</a> (where data from multiple studies are combined and analysed) of 50 years of cognitive style research found evidence that these thinking styles could happen at the same time. </p>
<p>Rather than two opposing ends of a spectrum, they are separate constructs, meaning that these thinking styles can happen together. Research in decision-making also suggests that <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01088/full">thinking style is flexible</a> and the best decisions are made when the thinking style a person uses aligns with the situation at hand. </p>
<p>Some situations are more suited to analytical thinking styles (such as number tasks) while some are more suited to using intuition (such as understanding facial expressions). An adaptive decision-maker is skilled in using both thinking styles.</p>
<p>So perhaps one way to reduce susceptibility to conspiracy theories is improving adaptive decision-making. <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258985">My 2021 study</a> found that when people were confronted with the misconceptions they had previously made, overestimating the extent to which others endorse anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, they re-evaluated their decisions. This could suggest that thinking styles can depend on the situation and information at hand. </p>
<p>Although in many situations <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871187116300384?casa_token=HdOYh26XhEgAAAAA:HYLmEBNeaggtWPqyvt94Mhhi4nNOvzPfji6tud3HPHB2Okhz4mEpzJ9HyX7Hmgal1jl8PkyJew">analytical thinking is better</a>, we shouldn’t dismiss the intuitive thinking style conspiracy theorists seem to favour as unworkable or inflexible. The answer could lie in understanding both thinking styles and being able to adjust our thinking styles when needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222303/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darel Cookson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The pros and pitfalls of this type of thinkingDarel Cookson, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240352024-03-15T12:11:53Z2024-03-15T12:11:53ZDid Biden really steal the election? Students learn how to debunk conspiracy theories in this course<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582032/original/file-20240314-24-in072o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trump supporters attend an election fraud rally in December 2020 in Washington, D.C.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/trump-supporter-and-qanon-follower-jake-the-q-shaman-angeli-news-photo/1297805096?adppopup=true">Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>Debunking conspiracy theories </p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>I am interested in how people internalize or learn about political beliefs they go on to adopt. This interest coincided with my concerns about the seeming ease with which some far-right conservatives and supporters of former President Donald Trump peddled patently bogus conspiracies about <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-2020-election-lies-debunked-4fc26546b07962fdbf9d66e739fbb50d">election fraud in 2020</a>.</p>
<p>One of the outcomes of these schemes was Trump supporters’ attack on the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/08/01/trump-indictment-jan-6-2020-election/">U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021</a>. Sadly, the belief that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, even in the face of overwhelming <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ap-fact-check-on-jan-6-anniversary-trump-sticks-to-election-falsehoods">evidence to the contrary</a>, has remained one core element of the Trump 2024 campaign. I remembered the work of historian Richard Hofstadter, who coined the term <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/">the “paranoid style” in politics</a> in a Harper’s Magazine essay in 1964. His main idea was that some politicians were using fear and a paranoid style of thinking to sway voters. They refused to accept the current state of society and wanted to make it appear that there was a looming threat to the country. </p>
<p>Hofstadter’s work was prompted by the actions of an extreme right-wing movement called the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/11/a-view-from-the-fringe">John Birch Society</a>. I had a feeling of déjà vu with Trump. </p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white leaflet says 'Does history repeat itself' and shows a photo of John F Kennedy. It has text comparing the deaths of Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1268&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1268&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1268&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1594&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1594&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582034/original/file-20240314-30-8vw3ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1594&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A 1970 conspiracy theory handout lists the similarities with the killing of John F. Kennedy and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/conspiracy-theory-handout-with-image-of-john-f-kennedy-news-photo/599828533?adppopup=true">Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>What’s the real truth about the moon landing? Who <a href="https://time.com/6338396/jfk-assassination-conspiracy-culture/">really killed JFK?</a> These are just some of the questions we explore in this course. My goal is to balance the serious with the absurd. </p>
<p>I want students to identify the root causes of the conspiracy, use vetted sources and learn to be good consumers of online information.</p>
<p>I also want to train students in the practice of critical analysis. The American Psychological Association has shown that people who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000392">practice conspiratorial thinking are more likely</a> to seek simple solutions to complex problems and experience feelings of fear and isolation. </p>
<p>We begin the course examining what we can learn from both political science and psychology. We look at the long history of hoaxes, frauds and deliberate conspiracies in American history, stretching back to the Illuminati, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2015/catholics-and-conspiracies">anti-Catholicism</a> <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/report/antisemitic-attitudes-america-conspiracy-theories-holocaust-education-and-other">and antisemitism</a>. </p>
<p>What is old is new again. The idea that a mysterious group <a href="https://theweek.com/62399/what-is-the-illuminati-and-what-does-it-control">like the Illuminati</a> is secretly in control of the world has not gone away. False beliefs about various groups such as Catholics and Jews are, sadly, recycled again and again.</p>
<p>The course also covers the current <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/01/1228373511/heres-why-conspiracy-theories-about-taylor-swift-and-the-super-bowl-are-spreadin">conspiracy theories about Taylor Swift</a>. This includes the false belief that the outcome of the February 2024 Super Bowl was predetermined so that the Kansas City Chiefs would win, and Swift, the girlfriend of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, would announce her support for President Joe Biden. </p>
<p>My course also explores much more serious threats, like QAnon – a dangerous movement that falsely believes secret government operatives are running child sex rings. </p>
<p>We also take a look at topics like UFOs, aliens, Bigfoot and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-loch-ness-monster-real-197338">Loch Ness monster</a>.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>In the current age of <a href="https://theconversation.com/republicans-and-democrats-consider-each-other-immoral-even-when-treated-fairly-and-kindly-by-the-opposition-220002">political polarization</a>, it is critical that I do all I can to equip future leaders and citizens with the tools they need to suss out fact from distraction and outright fiction. </p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>My hope is that my students leave the course with the confidence that they need to not only recognize but to openly combat disinformation. We live in an age of oversaturation of information. My students are digital natives. They rarely receive information from traditional media outlets like newspapers. When one considers the wealth of disinformation on the internet, or the prospect <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/11/15/more-americans-are-getting-news-on-tiktok-bucking-the-trend-seen-on-most-other-social-media-sites/">that TikTok is their primary source of news,</a> it is critical that students are educated about how to evaluate information.</p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>I use a <a href="https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/">number of resources</a> in this class, including <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-brainwashing-and-how-it-shaped-america-180963400/">magazine articles</a>, academic papers, books <a href="https://www.callingbullshit.org/tools.html">and websites</a> that give people tools to recognize false information. </p>
<p>Our reading list includes the books “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520276826/a-culture-of-conspiracy">A Culture of Conspiracy:</a> Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America,” “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/yale-scholarship-online/book/17546">Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America</a>” and “<a href="https://www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pages/books/140941664/richard-hofstadter/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics-and-other-essays">The Paranoid Style in American Politics and other essays”</a>.</p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>My students will feel some discomfort at times confronting their own biases and preconceived notions.</p>
<p>The idea is that my course will prepare students to question and then determine the veracity of patently false information. My students will also be prepared to recognize that most conspiracies are born from conditions of stress and the fear of the other.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224035/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Cason does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of history of education and American politics explains what is behind his course on conspiracy theories and how students learn to debunk fake ideas.David Cason, Associate Professor in Honors, University of North DakotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248352024-03-15T12:11:11Z2024-03-15T12:11:11ZWhat is the ‘great replacement theory’? A scholar of race relations explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581774/original/file-20240313-22-a4q7ya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=107%2C16%2C5406%2C3653&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of a white supremacist group demonstrate near the National Archives in Washington on Jan. 21, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PatriotFront/3caaaf6fe498443da3305b2b4ffc7b94/photo?Query=2024%20white%20nationalists&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=748&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=NaN&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.immigrationresearch.org/system/files/The%20%E2%80%98Great%20Replacement%E2%80%99%20Theory%2C%20Explained.pdf">“great replacement theory</a>,” whose origins date back to the late 19th century, argues that Jews and some Western elites are conspiring to replace white Americans and Europeans with people of non-European descent, particularly Asians and Africans.</p>
<p>The conspiracy evolved from a series of false ideas that, over time, stoked the fears of white people: In 1892, British-Australian author and politician Charles Pearson <a href="https://archive.org/details/nationallifeandc015071mbp">warned that white people</a> would “wake to find ourselves elbowed and hustled, and perhaps even thrust aside by people whom we looked down.” The massive influx of immigrants into Europe at the time fostered some of these fears and resulted in “white extinction anxiety.” In the U.S., it resulted in policies <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act">targeting immigration</a> in the late 19th and early 20th century. </p>
<p>In France, journalist Édouard Drumont, leader of an antisemitic movement, wrote articles in the late 19th century imagining how <a href="https://www.marxists.org/history/france/dreyfus-affair/drumont.htm">Jews would destroy French culture</a>. In 1909, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, an Italian poet and supporter of Benito Mussolini, argued that war and fascism <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/renaud-camus-great-replacement-brenton-tarrant/">were the only cure for the world</a>. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/08/12/these-are-the-three-reasons-that-fascism-spread-in-1930s-america-and-might-spread-again-today/">Fascism</a>, then and now, worked to ensure white dominance. </p>
<p>This was followed by the <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/forums/genetics-generation/america-s-hidden-history-the-eugenics-movement-123919444/">eugenics movement</a>, an erroneous and racist theory that supported forced sterilization of Black people, the mentally ill and other marginalized groups, who were all deemed “unfit.” </p>
<p>The 1978 book entitled “<a href="https://archive.org/details/the-turner-diaries-andrew-mac-donald-william-pierce">The Turner Diaries</a>,” a fictional futuristic account of the overthrow of the United States government, further contributed to white nationalist ideas. </p>
<p>Collectively, these gave rise to a global movement that attracted a wide range of <a href="https://archive.org/details/passingofgreatra00granuoft">white supremacist, xenophobic and anti-immigration conspiracy theories</a>. These theories were formally codified <a href="https://archive.org/details/le-grand-remplacement-renaud-camus">in the work of Frenchman Renaud Camus</a>, first in his 2010 book “L'Abécédaire de l'in-nocence” and elaborated in his 2011 book “<a href="https://archive.org/details/le-grand-remplacement-renaud-camus">Le Grand Remplacement</a>.” </p>
<p>Camus argued that ethnic French and white Europeans were being replaced physically, culturally and politically by nonwhite people. He believed that liberal immigration policies and the dramatic decline in white birth rates were threatening European civilization and traditions. </p>
<h2>Why this conspiracy theory matters</h2>
<p>These false ideas promulgated the spread of white supremacy, which has <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/05/17/racist-great-replacement-conspiracy-theory-explained?">contributed to terrorist attacks</a>, state violence and propaganda campaigns in the U.S and parts of Europe. </p>
<p>On Aug. 11, 2017, during a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/white-nationalists-rally-charlottesville-virginia.html">white nationalists chanted</a> “You will not replace us” and “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/16/charlottesville-neo-nazis-vice-news-hbo">Jews will not replace us</a>.” In spring 2019, Belgian politician Dries Van Langenhove repeatedly posted on social media, “<a href="https://time.com/5627494/we-analyzed-how-the-great-replacement-and-far-right-ideas-spread-online-the-trends-reveal-deep-concerns/">We are being replaced</a>.”</p>
<p>In recent years, <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/stress-and-trauma/undocumented-immigrants">nonwhite immigrants</a> have been the target of xenophobia. Migrants, especially from Mexico, are accused of <a href="https://immigrantjustice.org/research-items/report-legacy-injustice-us-criminalization-migration">bringing criminal activities</a> to American cities. Immigrants have also been falsely accused of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/08/18/1118271910/many-americans-falsely-think-migrants-are-bringing-most-of-the-fentanyl-entering">smuggling fentanyl</a> into the U.S. The reality is that immigrants commit <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1237103158/immigrants-are-less-likely-to-commit-crimes-than-us-born-americans-studies-find">far fewer crimes than those born in the U.S</a>. </p>
<h2>Impact of the theory and spread of hate</h2>
<p>In less than two decades, the theory has become a major idea, with as many <a href="https://www.rmx.news/france/france-poll-reveals-vast-majority-worried-about-great-replacement/">as 60% of the French population</a> believing some aspects of it. According to that survey, they are worried or at least concerned that they might be replaced. In the U.K. <a href="https://www.umass.edu/news/article/new-national-umass-amherst-poll-issues-finds-one-third-americans-believe-great">and the U.S.</a>, close to <a href="https://unherd.com/newsroom/one-in-three-brits-believe-in-great-replacement-theory/">one-third of those polled</a> believe that white people are systematically being replaced by nonwhite immigrants. Some in the U.S. fear that America might lose its culture and identity as a result. </p>
<p>Being aware of conspiracy theories and standing up to hatred, I argue, can help societies deal with the continuing fallout of extreme xenophobia, racist rants, the rise of white supremacy and the victimization of innocent people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224835/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodney Coates does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>False ideas about the extinction of the white race, spread around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, gave rise to xenophobic and anti-immigration conspiracy theories.Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2257032024-03-14T11:08:01Z2024-03-14T11:08:01ZHow conspiracy theories help to maintain Vladimir Putin’s grip on power in Russia<p>As Russians head to the polls on March 15 for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-we-expect-from-six-more-years-of-vladimir-putin-an-increasingly-weak-and-dysfunctional-russia-224259">presidential election</a>, conspiracy theories are swirling everywhere. In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a>, we speak to a disinformation expert about the central role these theories play in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.</p>
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<p>As soon as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/navalny-dies-in-prison-but-his-blueprint-for-anti-putin-activism-will-live-on-223774">death of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny</a> in a Siberian penal colony was announced in February, conspiracy theories about who was behind it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPn2zQWOU70">began circulating in Russia</a>.</p>
<p>“That he was killed by his puppet masters from the west, not the Kremlin. That he was killed by them because his murder would actually make Putin look awful in the eyes of global community,” explains Ilya Yablokov, a lecturer in digital journalism and disinformation at the University of Sheffield in the UK.</p>
<p>Yablokov studies the <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Fortress+Russia%3A+Conspiracy+Theories+in+the+Post+Soviet+World-p-9781509522651">spread of conspiracy theories in post-Soviet Russia</a>, and says the stories about Navalny are the most prominent of many circulating ahead of a presidential election that looks certain to keep Putin in the Kremlin until at least 2030. </p>
<p>Yablokov tells The Conversation Weekly that Russia’s conspiracy culture has become a key tool for Putin’s regime: “Conspiracy theories are one of the few ways of keeping the society together and to prevent the change of the regime.” </p>
<p>Fear of anti-Russian conspiracy now informs many pieces of domestic legislation, such as the 2022 changes to the <a href="https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Guide-to-Understanding-the-Laws-Relating-to-Fake-News-in-Russia.pdf">criminal code</a> that were aimed at censoring criticism of the Russian military, and in particular its actions in Ukraine. Yablokov adds:</p>
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<p>Every possible activity that can shake up the regime and question its actions is forbidden on the grounds of an existing conspiracy against Russia and its regime.</p>
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<p>Conspiracy theories used to exist on the margins of Russian culture. Putin typically avoided mentioning them too much, except at key political moments such as elections or Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. But now, and in particular since the Ukraine war, they have moved to the centre of political debate. </p>
<p>Listen to <a href="https://pod.link/1550643487">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast to hear Ilya Yablokov talk about Putin’s changing relationship with conspiracy theories, plus an introduction from Grégory Rayko, international editor at The Conversation in France. </p>
<p><em>A transcript of this episode will be available shortly.</em></p>
<p><em>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware and Katie Flood, with assistance from Mend Mariwany. Sound design was by Eloise Stevens, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. Stephen Khan is our global executive editor, Alice Mason runs our social media and Soraya Nandy does our transcripts.</em></p>
<p><em>Newsclips in this episode were from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPn2zQWOU70">Russia Media Monitor</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgydMTmhs50">BBC News</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nJGDsOswFc">Guardian News</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nYAM-Jbfh4">NBC</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAvMgUf8nyo">News</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdKDrIR8ASY&t=88s">CBS Mornings</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tim9AodGLhU">Channel 4 News</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>You can find us on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilya Yablokov does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Russian disinformation expert Ilya Yablokov tells The Conversation Weekly podcast about the president’s shifting relationship with conspiracy theories.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250312024-03-05T13:49:08Z2024-03-05T13:49:08ZQuick, blame the deep state! The tactics at play when Tories spout conspiracy theories<p>Conservative MPs seem increasingly willing to use the rhetoric of conspiracy. Recently, Liz Truss claimed that her brief tenure as prime minister had been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbbz-mYLzdw">ended by the deep state</a> – shadowy forces within the British establishment and the media.</p>
<p>A few days later, Lee Anderson, the Conservative party’s former deputy chairman, asserted that London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, is being <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/23/tory-mp-lee-anderson-claims-islamists-have-got-control-of-sadiq-khan">controlled by Islamists</a>. He was adding his own twist on a similar conspiracy theory put forward by former home secretary Suella Braverman, who claimed in a Telegraph article that Islamists are <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/22/islamism-suella-braverman-gaza-ceasefire-lindsay-hoyle/">in charge of the whole country</a>. </p>
<p>Why do politicians make conspiracy claims like these? It seems strange for MPs whose party has been in government for almost 14 years to imply that they aren’t really in control and that power is wielded by hidden actors.</p>
<p>Maybe Truss and Anderson mean what they say, and say what they mean. But even if they do believe that Britain is governed by a deep state or Islamist plotters, knowing a bit about rhetoric can help us to see that there is more going on when politicians use the language of conspiracy.</p>
<h2>Context matters</h2>
<p>A good politician will adapt what they say to fit the moment and their audience. For example, Truss’s deep state comments were made at CPAC, a conference for American conservatives. She was speaking in part to promote her new book, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEykZe1z6nY">Ten Years to Save the West</a>, and so had little reason to do anything other than give her audience what it likes. Conspiracy theories have become prominent in American conservatism (think QAnon and the claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen), so echoing the rhetoric is an obvious way for a CPAC speaker to ingratiate themselves with an audience.</p>
<p>Anderson, though, was speaking in the UK, where conspiracist language is more unusual. His comments were seen by many as deliberately divisive and Islamophobic, and quickly landed him a suspension from his party. That said, government ministers <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/nick-ferrari-cuts-interview-short-after-minister-refuses-answer-question/">were evasive</a> when asked why his comments were wrong and whether they were Islamophobic.</p>
<h2>Part of the brand</h2>
<p>Courting controversy carries risks, as Anderson’s suspension shows. But it can also thrust a politician into the limelight, giving them a chance to speak to a broader audience and potentially gain new supporters. Much of the time, politicians make their own character – or ethos, as it is known in classical rhetoric – part of their pitch.</p>
<p>In her comments alleging a deep state conspiracy, Truss took on a populist tone. She portrayed herself as an anti-establishment figure fighting for the British people against the elites. She didn’t mention her party’s long period in government in charge of the civil service that allegedly made her tenure so impossible. Nor did she refer to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sterling-hits-all-time-low-two-things-can-turn-this-around-but-neither-is-straightforward-191370">economic problems</a> brought about during her fleeting administration.</p>
<p>Speaking to an audience which is likely to be less familiar with her political career, Truss was able to present herself as the protagonist in a David and Goliath narrative – albeit one in which David is defeated.</p>
<p>Similarly, Anderson used the controversy around his comments to present himself as a man of the people. Rather than giving any evidence to back up his claims about Islamists controlling Khan, Anderson instead justified his views by citing the positive reaction he had received from his constituents. When told in an <a href="https://youtu.be/No7evaiMj-M?feature=shared&t=285">interview with Channel 4 News</a> that people were puzzled by his refusal to back down, Anderson replied: “If you go and speak to people in Ashfield [Anderson’s constituency] and ask them if they’re puzzled about it, no they’re not.”</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the controversy, <a href="https://youtu.be/YSOnSWys-yM?feature=shared&t=337">Anderson told GB News</a>: “When I went into pubs in Ashfield at the weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I got a round of applause when I went in. And these are normal working-class people.”</p>
<p>Such comments can be seen as part of a broader trend. Politicians have learned to cite the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.00953.x">opinions of ordinary people</a> in order to justify spurious claims. Rather than explaining anything about how he came to view Islamists being in charge of London, Anderson’s response to questions has been to use them as an opportunity to present himself as an outsider to the political establishment – a man in tune with what voters really think.</p>
<h2>Pitting ‘us’ against ‘them’</h2>
<p>This focus on presenting a certain persona and using it to justify baseless comments tells us something important – that identity is a key ingredient in conspiracist rhetoric.</p>
<p>It enables a politician to construct a conflict between an in-group and an out-group – a struggle between “us” and “them” – and asks the audience to pick a side. Rather than focusing on policies or ways of improving life for the British population, this rhetoric wants the audience to identify with the speaker’s character and join them in opposing a threatening enemy.</p>
<p>In this way, conspiracist rhetoric is much like the Conservatives’ attacks on “woke ideology” – it deflects attention away from their record in government, and rallies their supporters against an enemy at a time when the party is down on its luck. </p>
<p>Counteracting this is no easy task. Rhetoric is an art, not an exact science. One strategy could be to focus more on what politicians are trying to achieve when they use conspiracist rhetoric. While it is important to determine whether or not they really believe in a deep state or Islamist conspiracy, we also need to challenge the personas that politicians craft for themselves, as well the us-against-them divisions they construct.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225031/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Koper has received funding from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD), and is a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p>When Liz Truss blames shadowy elitists for her failings as prime minister, she is leaning into a tried-and-tested formula.Adam Koper, WISERD Civil Society Post-Doctoral Fellow, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240162024-03-03T15:55:34Z2024-03-03T15:55:34ZWhy do millions of Americans believe the 2020 presidential election was ‘stolen’ from Donald Trump?<p>Since the 1980s, Super Tuesday has been one of the most important dates in the American presidential campaign: about one third of the delegates will be awarded to the presidential candidates in each party. There is very little suspense as to who the winners will be this year: both <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/">Donald Trump</a> and <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/2024/national/">Joe Biden</a> have been the frontrunners and have shown commanding leads in the polls, despite their <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/548138/american-presidential-candidates-2024-election-favorable-ratings.aspx">low popularity</a>.</p>
<h2>The ongoing perception of a “stolen” election</h2>
<p>Never before has a non-incumbent GOP candidate enjoyed such a lead at this point of the campaign, not even <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Republican_Party_presidential_primaries">George W. Bush in 2000</a>. One reason may be that Donald Trump is not really a non-incumbent. More importantly, he is seen by a majority of his base as the only legitimate president. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/01/02/jan-6-poll-post-trump/">Two thirds of Republican voters</a> (and nearly 3 in 10 Americans) continue to believe that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and that Biden was not lawfully elected. In fact, this “election denialism” is <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-election-haleys-supporters-believe-radically-different-things-to-trump-so-where-do-they-go-next-222674">one of the major differences between</a> those who support Trump and those who voted for his rival, Nikki Haley. According to them, “massive” fraud occurred in certain states (fake voters, rigged voting machines, etc.) with the blessing of election officials and unscrupulous judges, thus tipping the contest.</p>
<p>Of course, there is <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2103619118">no evidence of fraud</a> that could have changed the outcome, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-election_lawsuits_related_to_the_2020_U.S._presidential_election">all the lawsuits challenging the results have been lost after hearings on the merits</a> or dismissed as moot – even by judges he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/14/most-remarkable-rebukes-trumps-legal-case-judges-he-hand-picked/">hand-picked</a>.</p>
<h2>A perfect martyr</h2>
<p>More than his conviction of sexual assault – in truth a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/07/19/trump-carroll-judge-rape/">rape</a> – and his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/trump-investigations-civil-criminal.html">multiple indictments</a>, Donald Trump’s most grievous fault has been his attempt at obstructing the democratic transfer of power by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/12/05/trump-jan-6-violence-election-obstruction/">encouraging his supporters</a> to violently oppose the certification of the election in 2021, and his continuous false claim that he, in fact, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/us/politics/trump-election-lies-fact-check.html">won in 2020</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s diehard supporters once again see him as the victim of a <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/31/donald-trump-indictment-00090001">“witch hunt”</a>, just as they did during the two impeachments he faced – it’s because he was taking on a “corrupt system”, they believe. Trump has used his legal troubles to <a href="https://time.com/6555904/donald-trump-gop-primary-2024/">raise millions of dollars</a>, a large part of which has gone to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-political-committee-has-spent-more-than-40-million-on-lawyers-fees-as-his-legal-peril-mounts">pay his defence lawyers</a> rather than fund his presidential campaign. Despite this, he has <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/national/">risen in the Republican primaries</a> and could well become the GOP’s candidate in the November 2024 election.</p>
<p>So how can we explain that tens of millions of Americans continue to adhere to this narrative of the stolen election, despite <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/analysis/Briefing_Memo_Debunking_Voter_Fraud_Myth.pdf">numerous studies</a> demonstrating its utter falsehood?</p>
<h2>Tracing the roots of political paranoia</h2>
<p>The myth of the stolen election is a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355068117_The_Rise_of_Presidential_Eschatology_Conspiracy_Theories_Religion_and_the_January_6th_Insurrection">mass conspiracy belief</a>, a type of unverified counter-narrative that questions well-established facts and relies instead on the idea that powerful and malevolent actors are operating in the shadows. What characterises the United States is not necessarily that its population is more gullible than others, but rather that a large part of its political and media class is willing to accept, exploit, and organise conspiracy thinking for its benefit.</p>
<p>In a landmark 1964 essay published in <em>Harper’s Magazine</em>, <a href="https://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/">“The Paranoid Style in American Politics”</a>, historian Richard Hofstadter famously explored the American passion for conspiracy, focusing on the right’s obsession with a supposed communist conspiracy during the McCarthy era. At that time, the Christian right merged with nationalism, becoming a powerful force opposing the supposedly godless communist bloc. In the 1970s, the political narrative of a universal struggle between Good and Evil became an <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00021.x">essential theme in presidential speeches</a>, particularly those by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.</p>
<h2>The “enemy within” and the “culture war”</h2>
<p>With the end of the Cold War in 1991, this binary narrative was adapted to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/7/9/21291493/donald-trump-evangelical-christians-kristin-kobes-du-mez">“culture war”</a>, pitting religious fundamentalists against progressives on moral and societal issues such as abortion and sexuality. It is a narrative of decline that identifies any political opposition as an “enemy” jeopardising the moral foundations of the nation.</p>
<p>This narrative was fuelled by a sense of powerlessness and humiliation that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks. Then came the 2008 financial crisis and two decades of the “war on terror” without anything like a tangible victory. As the country’s demographic makeup evolved, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socrel/article/81/3/272/5836966">racial resentment grew</a> and conspiracy thinking with it, as embodied by the narrative of the <a href="https://www.prri.org/spotlight/replacement-theory-is-not-a-fringe-theory/">“Great Replacement”</a>. The Covid crisis heightened the distrust of government. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/demons-of-the-deep-state-how-evangelicals-and-conspiracy-theories-combine-in-trumps-america-144898">“Deep State”</a> was born, perceived as literally demonic.</p>
<p>The politicisation of religion reached its peak with Donald Trump, who used religious language <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331071656_The_God_Card_Strategic_Employment_of_Religious_Language_in_US_Presidential_Discourse">more than any other president</a>. Unlike his predecessors, he explicitly associated <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344337560_Thou_Art_in_a_Deal_The_Evolution_of_Religious_Language_in_the_Public_Communications_of_Donald_Trump">American identity with Christianity</a>. He emphasised themes of Christian nationalism, highly popular among the white evangelicals he courted. It is within this religious group that adherence to the myth of the “stolen” election is the <a href="https://www.prri.org/spotlight/after-three-years-and-many-indictments-the-big-lie-that-led-to-the-january-6th-insurrection-is-still-believed-by-most-republicans/">strongest</a>.</p>
<h2>Donald Trump: a “saviour” who’s both godless and lawless</h2>
<p>The irony of Trump courting evangelicals is that Trump himself is <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2017/politics/state/donald-trump-religion/">far from religious</a>. His xenophobic slurs against immigrants, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/">contempt for veterans</a>, calls for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/13/white-house-biden-trump-vermin/">violence against political opponents</a>, mockery of a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34930042">disabled journalist</a>, and a glaring <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/21/politics/trump-religion-gospel/index.html">lack of religious culture</a> are fundamentally incompatible with Christian ethics. In speeches and interviews, he frequently <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIHhB1ZMV_o">highlights extremist groups</a>, such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proud_Boys">Proud Boys</a> and conspiracists such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNI553Np__k">QAnon believers</a>.</p>
<p>The link between conspiracy theories and white Christian nationalism is <a href="https://theconversation.com/evangelical-leaders-like-billy-graham-and-jerry-falwell-sr-have-long-talked-of-conspiracies-against-gods-chosen-those-ideas-are-finding-resonance-today-132241">well documented</a>, most recently regarding topics such as vaccines or climate change. Evangelicals “rationalise” the election lie by <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/3/5/16796892/trump-cyrus-christian-right-bible-cbn-evangelical-propaganda">comparing Trump to Cyrus</a>, a historical Persian king who, in the Old Testament (<a href="https://enterthebible.org/passage/isaiah-4423-458-cyrus-gods-anointed-shepherd">Isaiah)</a>, did not worship the god of Israel but is portrayed as an instrument used by God to deliver the Jewish people.</p>
<h2>How the Capitol attack comforted evangelists’ views</h2>
<p>These beliefs stem from a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism">“premillennialist”</a> interpretation of the Book of Revelation, adopted by a majority of evangelicals (<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/12/08/about-four-in-ten-u-s-adults-believe-humanity-is-living-in-the-end-times/">63%</a>) who believe that humanity is currently experiencing the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology">“End Times”</a>.</p>
<p>This worldview was embodied by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/christian-nationalism-is-downplayed-in-the-jan-6-report-and-collective-memory-189440">attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021</a>. It gave Republican leaders a unique opportunity to condemn Donald Trump in an impeachment trial that could have ended his political ambitions. Despite the stakes, neither the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, nor the influential Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, voted for impeachment. Yet both acknowledged that Trump was <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/13/mcconnell-condemns-trump-acquitted-469002">“morally responsible”</a> for the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-effort-live-updates/2021/01/13/956452691/gop-leader-mccarthy-trump-bears-responsibility-for-violence-wont-vote-to-impeach">violence</a>.</p>
<p>As the Republican Party did during Trump’s first impeachment trial and with every one of his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_or_misleading_statements_by_Donald_Trump">innumerable lies</a>, including <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-conventions/2020/8/25/21400657/trump-rnc-2020-coronavirus-Covid-19-pandemic">during the Covid crisis</a>, it once again showed itself willing to sacrifice democracy itself on the altar of political ambition.</p>
<p>The result is that the election lie has become the norm and now a loyalty test within the party. A vast majority of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/09/us/politics/election-misinformation-midterms-results.html">new congressional members in 2022</a> have in turn cast doubt on the 2020 results. When Kevin McCarthy proved to be insufficiently loyal to Trump, he was replaced as Speaker of the House by Mike Johnson, a <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/01/january-6-insurrection-mike-johnson-evangelical-christian-apostolic-reformation.html">Christian nationalist</a> and <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/mike-johnson-now-most-powerful-election-denier-washington">staunch election denier</a>.</p>
<h2>A widespread lie financed by powerful groups</h2>
<p>This lie is not the democratic and populist expression of grassroots anti-elitism. It is fuelled by national organisations that are <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie">funded by some of the country’s wealthiest conservatives</a>. New York University’s <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/big-donors-working-overturn-2020-election-are-backing-election-denial">Brennan Center for Justice</a> has identified several of these groups, including the <a href="https://www.eip-ca.com/">Election Integrity Project California</a>, <a href="https://www.freedomworks.org/issue/election-protection/">FreedomWorks</a>, or the <a href="https://www.honestelections.org/">Honest Elections Project</a>, whose names belie their intentions.</p>
<p>Among these groups, the <a href="https://fedsoc.org/commentary/publications/voter-fraud-in-our-republic">Federalist Society</a>, which promoted the appointment of the most conservative members to the Supreme Court, has led the <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/12/how-leonard-leos-dark-money-network-orchestrated-a-new-attack-on-the-voting-rights-act/">attack against the Voting Rights Act</a> (a 1965 law prohibiting racial discrimination in voting).</p>
<p>The role of the <a href="https://www.heritage.org/voterfraud">Heritage Foundation</a> is also notable.</p>
<p>One of the most powerful and influential conservative organisations, it has used the spectre of electoral fraud as a pretext for removing voters from voting lists. One of its founders, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Weyrich">Paul Weyrich</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBAsFwPglw">declared in 1980</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Add to this an overt strategy of <a href="https://time.com/6334985/trump-fox-news-lies-brian-stelter-essay/">media disinformation</a> used by Trump and his allies, summarised by Steve Bannon, the former leader of Breitbart News and former advisor to Donald Trump: <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/16/20991816/impeachment-trial-trump-bannon-misinformation">“Flood the zone with shit”</a>. The point is simply to overwhelm the press and the public with so much false information and disinformation that distinguishing truth from lies becomes too challenging, if not impossible.</p>
<p>All of this is, of course, amplified by acute <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/U/bo27527354.html">political polarisation rooted in social identity</a>. This is <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/why-are-americans-so-geographically-polarized/575881/">manifested geographically</a>, where partisan preferences are correlated with population density – urban versus rural, to simplify. Republicans who believe in the myth of a stolen election cannot believe that Joe Biden could have been elected by a majority because <em>no one around them voted Democrat</em>, after all.</p>
<p>This physical polarisation is reinforced by <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2020/01/24/u-s-media-polarization-and-the-2020-election-a-nation-divided/">media polarisation</a> that creates a true informational bubble. Thus, a majority of Republicans trust only <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/04/08/five-facts-about-fox-news/">Fox News</a> and far-right television channels like <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/05/media/dominion-exec-oan-lawsuit-settlement/index.html">One American News</a>, whose primetime hosts have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/business/media/fox-news-dominion-rupert-murdoch.html">endorsed lies even they themselves don’t believe</a> about electoral fraud. These were then <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/09/19/election-misinformation-social-media-big-lie-report">amplified by social networks</a>.</p>
<h2>Will history repeat itself next November?</h2>
<p>Questioning electoral results is a constant theme for Donald Trump. In 2012, he <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trumps-2012-election-tweetstorm-resurfaces-popular-electoral/story?id=43431536">called Barack Obama’s re-election</a> a <a href="https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/266035509162303492">“total sham and a travesty”</a>, adding that “we are not a democracy” and that it would be necessary to “march on Washington” and stop what he claimed was a “travesty”. In 2016, he contested, with no evidence whatsoever, the results of the Iowa caucus and the popular vote won by Hillary Clinton, attributing it to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38126438">“millions of illegal votes”</a>.</p>
<p>The difference between 2020 and today is that Donald Trump is no longer a political curiosity. His voice is now heard and believed by millions of citizens. Thus, almost a quarter of US citizens (<a href="https://www.prri.org/spotlight/after-three-years-and-many-indictments-the-big-lie-that-led-to-the-january-6th-insurrection-is-still-believed-by-most-republicans/">23%</a>) say that they would be willing to use violence to “save the country.” Regardless of the outcome of the 2024 election, there is cause for concern. Donald Trump <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3998962-trump-wont-commit-to-accepting-2024-election-results/">has refused to commit</a> to accepting the 2024 election results if it is not in his favour. And his followers are once again ready to follow his words of refusal, turning them into action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Nearly a third of Americans say they believe that Donald Trump was the real winner of the last election, and the ratio is twice as high among Republican voters.Jérôme Viala-Gaudefroy, Assistant lecturer, CY Cergy Paris UniversitéLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2237172024-02-23T00:02:10Z2024-02-23T00:02:10ZHow people get sucked into misinformation rabbit holes – and how to get them out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576118/original/file-20240216-28-bwac7i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C35%2C6000%2C3952&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sleepy-exhausted-woman-lying-bed-using-2142188351">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As misinformation and radicalisation rise, it’s tempting to look for something to blame: the internet, social media personalities, sensationalised political campaigns, religion, or conspiracy theories. And once we’ve settled on a cause, solutions usually follow: do more fact-checking, regulate advertising, ban YouTubers deemed to have “gone too far”.</p>
<p>However, if these strategies were the whole answer, we should already be seeing a decrease in people being drawn into fringe communities and beliefs, and less misinformation in the online environment. We’re not.</p>
<p>In new research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833241231756">published in the Journal of Sociology</a>, we and our colleagues found radicalisation is a process of increasingly intense stages, and only a small number of people progress to the point where they commit violent acts. </p>
<p>Our work shows the misinformation radicalisation process is a pathway driven by human emotions rather than the information itself – and this understanding may be a first step in finding solutions.</p>
<h2>A feeling of control</h2>
<p>We analysed dozens of public statements from newspapers and online in which former radicalised people described their experiences. We identified different levels of intensity in misinformation and its online communities, associated with common recurring behaviours. </p>
<p>In the early stages, we found people either encountered misinformation about an anxiety-inducing topic through algorithms or friends, or they went looking for an explanation for something that gave them a “bad feeling”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-why-disinformation-is-so-pervasive-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-188457">Three reasons why disinformation is so pervasive and what we can do about it</a>
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<p>Regardless, they often reported finding the same things: a new sense of certainty, a new community they could talk to, and feeling they had regained some control of their lives.</p>
<p>Once people reached the middle stages of our proposed radicalisation pathway, we considered them to be invested in the new community, its goals, and its values. </p>
<h2>Growing intensity</h2>
<p>It was during these more intense stages that people began to report more negative impacts on their own lives. This could include the loss of friends and family, health issues caused by too much time spent on screens and too little sleep, and feelings of stress and paranoia. To soothe these pains, they turned again to their fringe communities for support. </p>
<p>Most people in our dataset didn’t progress past these middle stages. However, their continued activity in these spaces kept the misinformation ecosystem alive. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Photo showing man and woman lying in bed in the dark, facing away from each other and looking at their phones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577193/original/file-20240222-18-94qg55.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Engagement with misinformation proceeds in stages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-asian-couple-using-smartphone-midnight-2131573395">TimeImage / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When people did move further and reach the extreme final stages in our model, they were doing active harm. </p>
<p>In their recounting of their experiences at these high levels of intensity, individuals spoke of choosing to break ties with loved ones, participating in public acts of disruption and, in some cases, engaging in violence against other people in the name of their cause. </p>
<p>Once people reached this stage, it took pretty strong interventions to get them out of it. The challenge, then, is how to intervene safely and effectively when people are in the earlier stages of being drawn into a fringe community.</p>
<h2>Respond with empathy, not shame</h2>
<p>We have a few suggestions. For people who are still in the earlier stages, friends and trusted advisers, like a doctor or a nurse, can have a big impact by simply responding with empathy. </p>
<p>If a loved one starts voicing possible fringe views, like a fear of vaccines, or animosity against women or other marginalised groups, a calm response that seeks to understand the person’s underlying concern can go a long way. </p>
<p>The worst response is one that might leave them feeling ashamed or upset. It may drive them back to their fringe community and accelerate their radicalisation. </p>
<p>Even if the person’s views intensify, maintaining your connection with them can turn you into a lifeline that will see them get out sooner rather than later.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/out-of-the-rabbit-hole-new-research-shows-people-can-change-their-minds-about-conspiracy-theories-222507">Out of the rabbit hole: new research shows people can change their minds about conspiracy theories</a>
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<p>Once people reached the middle stages, we found third-party online content – not produced by government, but regular users – could reach people without backfiring. Considering that many people in our research sample had their radicalisation instigated by social media, we also suggest the private companies behind such platforms should be held responsible for the effects of their automated tools on society. </p>
<p>By the middle stages, arguments on the basis of logic or fact are ineffective. It doesn’t matter whether they are delivered by a friend, a news anchor, or a platform-affiliated fact-checking tool.</p>
<p>At the most extreme final stages, we found that only heavy-handed interventions worked, such as family members forcibly hospitalising their radicalised relative, or individuals undergoing government-supported deradicalisation programs.</p>
<h2>How not to be radicalised</h2>
<p>After all this, you might be wondering: how do you protect <em>yourself</em> from being radicalised? </p>
<p>As much of society becomes more dependent on digital technologies, we’re going to get exposed to even more misinformation, and our world is likely going to get smaller through online echo chambers. </p>
<p>One strategy is to foster your critical thinking skills by <a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/abstract/S1364-6613(23)00198-5">reading long-form texts from paper books</a>. </p>
<p>Another is to protect yourself from the emotional manipulation of platform algorithms by <a href="https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751">limiting your social media use</a> to small, infrequent, purposefully-directed pockets of time.</p>
<p>And a third is to sustain connections with other humans, and lead a more analogue life – which has other benefits as well.</p>
<p>So in short: log off, read a book, and spend time with people you care about. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-month-at-sea-with-no-technology-taught-me-how-to-steal-my-life-back-from-my-phone-127501">A month at sea with no technology taught me how to steal my life back from my phone</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Booth is supported by funding from the Australian Department of Home Affairs and the Defence Innovation Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marian-Andrei Rizoiu receives funding from the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the Defence Science and Technology Group, the Defence Innovation Network and the Australian Academy of Science.</span></em></p>People who dive into misinformation are driven to satisfy an emotional need, according to our new research.Emily Booth, Research assistant, University of Technology SydneyMarian-Andrei Rizoiu, Associate Professor in Behavioral Data Science, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217542024-02-21T19:12:35Z2024-02-21T19:12:35ZThe power and pleasure – and occasional backlash – of celebrity conspiracy theories<p><em>With Taylor Swift pulling in over half-a-million audience members on her Australian tour, we’ve been thinking a lot about fans. <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/fandom-series-152420">In this series</a>, our academics dive into fan cultures: how they developed, how they operate, and how they shape the world today.</em></p>
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<p>For years, people <a href="https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/ajpc.3.2.173_1">have claimed</a> Elvis Presley is alive and well. Theories that his death was faked to escape the pressures of fame were even <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Ordinary_Reactions_to_Extraordinary_Even/GAMl4GEW6-oC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=marilyn+monroe+conspiracy+theories&pg=PA21&printsec=frontcover">stoked by his record label</a>, who, two years after his death, debuted a performer who sounded like and resembled Presley, but performed wearing a mask. </p>
<p>Of course, it was all a publicity stunt.</p>
<p>In the digital age, conspiracy theorising does not require media or record label boosting. Social media acts as a platform and amplifier of fan-led conspiracy theorising. </p>
<p>Have you heard that the Canadian singer <a href="https://theconversation.com/halloween-avril-lavigne-and-the-conspiracy-theory-that-refuses-to-die-176495">Avril Lavigne is dead</a> and has been replaced by a body double called Melissa Vandella? Perhaps you’ve seen TikTok’s theorising that American actor Lea Michelle <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/larryfitzmaurice/lea-michele-cant-read-tiktok">can’t read</a>?</p>
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<p>For years, people who claimed Britney Spears was being held in her conservatorship against her will <a href="https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/2871">were considered fringe conspiracy theorists</a>. However, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/12/entertainment/britney-spears-conservatorship-ends/index.html">legal events</a> demonstrated this was substantially true. In recent years, Taylor Swift has famously <a href="https://www.billboard.com/lists/taylor-swift-eras-tour-easter-eggs/">mobilised cryptic clues</a> to tip off fans to upcoming album and tour announcements and so, in a sense, encouraging fans to make conspiracy theories about what she’s doing next.</p>
<p>This leads us to one of the more satisfying aspects of conspiracy theorising: sometimes, they might just be right. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shame-intimacy-and-community-fangirls-are-mocked-but-it-is-more-complex-than-you-might-think-213750">Shame, intimacy, and community: fangirls are mocked, but it is more complex than you might think</a>
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<h2>Decoding Taylor Swift</h2>
<p>When we think of conspiracy theories we tend to think of theories that have <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22000823">resulted in societal harms</a>, such as QAnon or COVID-related conspiracies. However, conspiracy theories increasingly include many of the everyday practices of celebrity and fan culture. </p>
<p>Examining Swift’s engagement with her fans reveals that fans are not always “delulu” – <a href="https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/what-does-delulu-mean-on-tiktok-2276394/">a phrase popularised by fans</a> to playfully reference their “delusion” when it comes to conspiracy theorising. The release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was predicted by fans across social media through the <a href="https://www.indy100.com/celebrities/taylor-swift-fans-predict-1989-announcement">meticulous interpretation of clues</a> including colour-coded tour outfits, significant dates and social media traces left by the singer.</p>
<p>Another popular conspiracy theory within the Swift fandom is the “missing album”. </p>
<p>Prior to the release of 2017’s Reputation, Swift had been operating a clockwork schedule of album releases: one every two years. But there were a little over three years between 1989 and Reputation. The excess space between these release dates led to the theory about a “missing” album called Karma.</p>
<p>In one scene in her music video for her 2019 song The Man, the word “karma” is written in orange graffiti on a wall alongside Swift’s other albums, with adjacent text that says “MISSING: IF FOUND RETURN TO TAYLOR SWIFT”. </p>
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<p>Swift’s albums <a href="https://stylecaster.com/entertainment/music/1625095/1989-blue-taylor-swift/">are colour coded</a>, and orange is the colour fans have chosen to associate with the missing album. At the end of her Era’s tour show, Swift sings Karma, a song from her most recent album Midnights, and exits through an orange door. </p>
<p>The clues are all there, the fans say, that Karma is the missing album, and maybe, just maybe, Swift is telling her watchful fans that they were right all along: Karma is coming next.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-deadheads-on-bulletin-boards-to-taylor-swift-stans-a-short-history-of-how-fandoms-shaped-the-internet-210970">From Deadheads on bulletin boards to Taylor Swift 'stans': a short history of how fandoms shaped the internet</a>
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<h2>An internet archive</h2>
<p>Fan conspiracy theorising allows a sense of intimacy at scale. Swift frequently <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2014/10/taylor-swift-queen-of-celebrity-social-media.html">jokes</a> about “seeing everything” fans do and say online, creating a sense of a real dialogue: a call and response between fan theorising and Swift’s output.</p>
<p>Social media has substantially changed our relationship with celebrity, as expectations around access to and intimacy with celebrities <a href="https://sciendo.com/article/10.5334/csci.140?tab=referenzen">has been transformed</a>. </p>
<p>The social media presence of celebrities – necessary to sell themselves in a crowded marketplace – provides fans with access to more digital traces and data points of celebrity behaviour to analyse and dissect. The internet functions as a vast, collective archive, storing and producing a seemingly endless amount of “evidence”. </p>
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<p>But there is a trade off. Intense public discourse about Swift’s <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellendurney/taylor-swift-song-about-miscarriage-on-midnights">private</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/opinion/taylor-swift-queer.html">life</a> recently prompted her camp to push back against the “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/06/business/taylor-swift-new-york-times/index.html">invasive, untrue and inappropriate</a>” speculation around her sexuality.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shipping-slash-fic-and-gaylors-fans-can-find-community-through-queering-idols-but-is-it-ethical-210971">'Shipping', 'slash fic' and 'Gaylors': fans can find community through 'queering' idols – but is it ethical?</a>
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<h2>Community building</h2>
<p>Platforms create opportunities for fans to collectively analyse evidence, share their theories and gain recognition within the fandom for their “expertise”. The pleasures of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14660970.2023.2250662">feeling like an expert</a> have long been part of fandom, be that arts or sports.</p>
<p>Conspiracy theorising can activate many of the <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/girlhood-studies/12/1/ghs120106.xml">collective pleasures of fandom</a>, such as insider expertise, community building and a sense of discovery through close reading of key texts.</p>
<p>In understanding the pleasures of conspiracy theorising about celebrities, we can gain insight into the pull of more harmful conspiracies. While there is a world of difference between QAnon and celebrity conspiracy theorists, participants in both are seeking community, the satisfaction of “putting the pieces together” and a sense of expertise.</p>
<p>We know from research that conspiracies are almost <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/When_Prophecy_Fails.html?id=FTAxYAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">infinitely flexible</a>. If one aspect <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-25/qanon-keeps-changing-the-goal-posts/13184202">is disproven</a>, or fails, the <a href="https://thesociologicalreview.org/magazine/may-2022/belief/qanon-and-on/">boundaries shift and change</a> to encompass and explain the incongruous. </p>
<p>Fans failed to predict the announcement of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) many more times than they succeeded. Each failure meant a return to the clues, to re-read and reinterpret the signs. Even though fans eventually successfully “predicted” the announcement, in the absence of success, failure is simply folded into the expanding horizon of speculation. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-harry-potter-to-taylor-swift-how-millennial-women-grew-up-with-fandoms-and-became-a-force-211890">From Harry Potter to Taylor Swift: how millennial women grew up with fandoms, and became a force</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One of the more satisfying aspects of conspiracy theorising is, sometimes, they might just be right.Naomi Smith, Lecturer in Sociology, University of the Sunshine CoastClare Southerton, Lecturer, Digital Technology & Pedagogy, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2225072024-02-18T19:51:33Z2024-02-18T19:51:33ZOut of the rabbit hole: new research shows people can change their minds about conspiracy theories<p>Many people <a href="https://theconversation.com/was-phar-lap-killed-by-gangsters-new-research-shows-which-conspiracies-people-believe-in-and-why-158610">believe at least one</a> conspiracy theory. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing – conspiracies <em>do</em> happen.</p>
<p>To take just one example, the CIA really did engage in <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/13/cia-mind-control-1266649">illegal experiments</a> in the 1950s to identify drugs and procedures that might produce confessions from captured spies.</p>
<p>However, many conspiracy theories are not supported by evidence, yet still attract believers. </p>
<p>For example, in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12746">previous study</a>, we found about 7% of New Zealanders and Australians agreed with the theory that <a href="https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sensing-our-planet/on-the-trail-of-contrails">visible trails behind aircraft</a> are “chemtrails” of chemical agents sprayed as part of a secret government program. That’s despite the theory being <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/8/084011">roundly rejected</a> by the scientific community. </p>
<p>The fact that conspiracy theories attract believers despite a lack of credible evidence remains a puzzle for researchers in psychology and other academic disciplines. </p>
<p>Indeed, there has been a great deal of research on conspiracy theories published in the past few years. We now know more about how many people believe them, as well as the psychological and political factors that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-25617-0">correlate with that belief</a>.</p>
<p>But we know much less about how often people change their minds. Do they do so frequently, or do they to stick tenaciously to their beliefs, regardless of what evidence they come across?</p>
<h2>From 9/11 to COVID</h2>
<p>We set out to answer this question using a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-51653-z">longitudinal survey</a>. We recruited 498 Australians and New Zealanders (using the <a href="http://prolific.com">Prolific</a> website, which recruits people to take part in paid research). </p>
<p>Each month from March to September 2021, we presented our sample group with a survey, including ten conspiracy theories, and asked them how much they agreed with each one. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/taylor-swift-nfl-conspiracy-theories-are-the-result-of-two-sets-of-hardcore-fans-colliding-223020">Taylor Swift-NFL conspiracy theories are the result of two sets of hardcore fans colliding</a>
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<p>All of these theories related to claims about events that are either ongoing, or occurred this millennium: the September 11 attacks, the rollout of 5G telecommunications technology, and COVID-19, among others.</p>
<p>While there were definitely some believers in our sample, most participants disagreed with each of the theories. </p>
<p>The most popular theory was that “pharmaceutical companies (‘Big Pharma’) have suppressed a cure for cancer to protect their profits”. Some 18% of the sample group agreed when first asked.</p>
<p>The least popular was the theory that “COVID-19 ‘vaccines’ contain microchips to monitor and control people”. Only 2% agreed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/intelligence-doesnt-make-you-immune-to-conspiracy-theories-its-more-about-thinking-style-220978">Intelligence doesn't make you immune to conspiracy theories – it's more about thinking style</a>
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<h2>Conspiracy beliefs probably aren’t increasing</h2>
<p>Despite contemporary concerns about a “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7320252/">pandemic of misinformation</a>” or “<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30461-X/fulltext">infodemic</a>”, we found no evidence that individual beliefs in conspiracy theories increased on average over time. </p>
<p>This was despite our data collection happening during the tumultuous second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns were still happening occasionally in both <a href="https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/things-to-do/a-timeline-of-covid-19-in-australia-two-years-on">Australia</a> and <a href="https://covid19.govt.nz/about-our-covid-19-response/history-of-the-covid-19-alert-system/">New Zealand</a>, and anti-government sentiment was building. </p>
<p>While we only tracked participants for six months, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0270429">other studies</a> over much longer time frames have also found little evidence that beliefs in conspiracy theories are increasing over time.</p>
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<p>Finally, we found that beliefs (or non-beliefs) in conspiracy theories were stable – but not completely fixed. For any given theory, the vast majority of participants were “consistent sceptics” – not agreeing with the theory at any point. </p>
<p>There were also some “consistent believers” who agreed at every point in the survey they responded to. For most theories, this was the second-largest group. </p>
<p>Yet for every conspiracy theory, there was also a small proportion of converts. They disagreed with the theory at the start of the study, but agreed with it by the end. There was also a small proportion of “apostates” who agreed with the theory at the start, but disagreed by the end.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the percentages of converts and apostates tended to balance each other pretty closely, leaving the percentage of believers fairly stable over time. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/conspiracy-theories-arent-on-the-rise-we-need-to-stop-panicking-208033">Conspiracy theories aren't on the rise – we need to stop panicking</a>
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<h2>Inside the ‘rabbit hole’</h2>
<p>This relative stability is interesting, because <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2564659">one criticism</a> of conspiracy theories is that they may not be “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/criterion-of-falsifiability">falsifiable</a>”: what seems like evidence against a conspiracy theory can just be written off by believers as part of the cover up. </p>
<p>Yet people clearly <em>do</em> sometimes decide to reject conspiracy theories they previously believed. </p>
<p>Our findings bring into question the popular notion of the “rabbit hole” – that people rapidly develop beliefs in a succession of conspiracy theories, much as Alice tumbles down into Wonderland in Lewis Carroll’s <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11">famous story</a>.</p>
<p>While it’s possible this does happen for a small number of people, our results suggest it isn’t a typical experience. </p>
<p>For most, the <a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/articles/2023/opinion/how-to-talk-to-someone-about-conspiracy-theories">journey into</a> conspiracy theory belief might involve a more gradual slope – a bit like a <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/j.1469-7998.1985.tb05649.x">real rabbit burrow</a>, from which one can also emerge.</p>
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<p><em>Mathew Ling (<a href="https://www.neaminational.org.au/">Neami National</a>), Stephen Hill (Massey University) and Edward Clarke (Philipps-Universität Marburg) contributed to the research referred to in this article.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Data collection for this study was supported by the Massey University Strategic Research Excellence Fund. Matt Williams also receives funding from the Marsden Fund Council, managed by the Royal Society Te Apārangi.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Kerr works for the Public Health Communication Centre, which is funded by a philanthropic endowment from the Gama Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Marques does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new study has found no evidence that people’s beliefs in conspiracy theories increase over time. They can even change their minds – just not that often.Matt Williams, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Massey UniversityJohn Kerr, Senior Research Fellow, University of OtagoMathew Marques, Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2230202024-02-09T16:17:56Z2024-02-09T16:17:56ZTaylor Swift-NFL conspiracy theories are the result of two sets of hardcore fans colliding<p>At Super Bowl LVIII, Taylor Swift will appear on the field at Allegiant Stadium after her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s team, the Kansas City Chiefs, wins the game. But she won’t be performing. Swift’s appearance will be a Pentagon-backed psy-op to turn the rigged game into a calculated political endorsement, to secure the 2024 presidential election for Joe Biden. </p>
<p>At least, this is what conspiracy theorists are <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/68206676">predicting will happen</a>.</p>
<p>Swift, Kelce and the NFL have all been targets of conspiratorial thinking before. Swift has been accused of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07494467.2021.1956270">queerbaiting</a> (hinting at LGBTQ+ identity without coming out) and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2020.1704431">neo-Nazi allegiances</a> after far right websites made memes out of her lyrics.</p>
<p>Kelce fell victim to vaccine-sceptic theories about “killer injections” when he <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/pro-vaccination-ad-leaves-nfl-s-kelce-in-misinformation-crosshairs/ar-AA1htg9O">endorsed the COVID vaccine</a>. And some people have claimed that the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2024/02/06/viral-videos-capitalize-on-conspiracy-theory-that-nfl-games-are-rigged/">NFL is scripted</a> and rigged.</p>
<p>It is not unusual for conspiracy theories to emerge in response to political, media or entertainment events. And the convergence of two American institutions – Taylor Swift and the NFL – is a perfect storm. </p>
<h2>Why people believe conspiracy theories</h2>
<p>Belief in conspiracy theories is not necessarily tied to levels of intelligence or <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-liberal-conspiracy-theories-can-be-just-as-destructive-as-their-extremist-counterparts-215424">political affiliation</a>. But <a href="https://theconversation.com/intelligence-doesnt-make-you-immune-to-conspiracy-theories-its-more-about-thinking-style-220978">research</a> shows that these types of beliefs are more common in people who tend to use intuitive, rather than critical, thinking.</p>
<p>Linked to this is <a href="https://www.thebehavioralscientist.com/glossary/proportionality-bias">proportionality bias</a>, a tendency to correlate major events with major consequences. It is associated with conspiracy theories as people search for simple answers to make sense of complicated situations.</p>
<p>The Swift-NFL conspiracy theories are fuelled by the fact that highly publicised people and events are involved. I am currently researching the relationship between Swift, the press and public opinion for a forthcoming volume on Swift edited by <a href="https://music.uchicago.edu/people/paula-harper">Paula Harper</a>, <a href="https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Taylor-Swift-s-life-and-lyrics-topic-of-virtual-16319577.php">Kate Galloway</a> and <a href="https://news.uark.edu/articles/66447/musicologist-christa-bentley-discusses-singer-songwriter-and-mega-superstar-taylor-swift">Christa Bentley</a>.</p>
<p>I am examining the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1464884919845458">journalistic practice</a> of selecting contentious tweets as evidence of <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/music/a28067315/taylor-swift-you-need-to-calm-down-video-stereotypes/">public opinion</a> to support controversial narratives about Swift.</p>
<p>This builds on my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07494467.2021.1945225">previous research</a> exploring social media reactions to Swift’s LGBTQ+ allyship in “You Need to Calm Down”. I have found that, while online posts about Swift are mostly neutral about the artist, this is often downplayed in the press in favour of over-reporting on controversy.</p>
<h2>America’s sweetheart, or a target for sexism?</h2>
<p>The Super Bowl conspiracy theories also appear to be influenced by political and sexist attitudes. Swift has long been a symbol of “Americana”, but one that is increasingly outwardly liberal, and told through the point of view of a young woman. As researchers <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07494467.2021.1976586">Mary Fogarty and Gina Arnold</a> note: “Taylor may be a monument to an old, white America, but she’s also an avatar of a future that is female.”</p>
<p>As the world has watched conservative politicians <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-abortion-be-the-issue-that-swings-the-2024-us-presidential-election-219495">erode women’s rights</a> in the US, we cannot ignore the fact that Swift is a powerful, billionaire, woman whose fans are mostly <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/03/14/more-than-half-of-us-adults-say-theyre-taylor-swift-fans-survey-finds/">women</a>.</p>
<p>Swift has now entered another distinctly American space – the NFL – whose fans have historically <a href="https://slate.com/culture/2023/09/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-dating-relationship-conservative-backlash-fox-news.html">tended to be conservative</a>. In doing so, she complicates an “us v them” mentality defined by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/MAGA-movement">excessive nationalism</a>, as seen in far-right conservative spaces.</p>
<p>Swift has demonstrable power within the music industry, not only through her fan support, but also in how she has fought for better <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/24/taylor-swift-blow-fellow-artists-streaming-revenues-soar-universal-spotify">streaming service royalties</a> for artists and rerecorded her <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22278732/taylor-swift-re-recording-1989-speak-now-enchanted-mine-master-rights-scooter-braun">albums</a> in a battle over rights to her music.</p>
<p>She also has political power, contributing to a record-breaking <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/22/1201183160/taylor-swift-instagram-voter-registration">voter registration day</a> with one Instagram post.</p>
<p>It is difficult not to see this new conspiracy theory as partly an attempt to downplay the success of a powerful woman, by implying that her increased popularity over the past two years is the result of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/31/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-super-bowl-rightwing-conspiracy-biden">a government conspiracy</a>.</p>
<h2>Clashing fandoms: Swifties v NFL fans</h2>
<p>A vocal minority of NFL fans have complained that Swift is receiving <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/25/style/taylor-swift-nfl-broadcasts.html">too much airtime</a> during games. But it is not just Swift who is disrupting the NFL, it is also her fans: the “Swifties”. </p>
<p>I have <a href="https://www.intellectbooks.com/fan-phenomena-the-twilight-saga">previously published research</a> about the clashes that occur when young girls and women move into male-dominated fan spaces. New female fans are criticised for not being “true” fans or participating in the “correct” way.</p>
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<p>The Swift conspiracy theory seems also to have partly been influenced by Swifties’ practice of looking for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/09/how-taylor-swift-turned-pop-into-a-multiplayer-puzzle">“Easter eggs”</a> (hidden messages) in Swift’s lyrics. As this process has infiltrated wider audiences and the press, the search for deeper meaning is now being extended into Swift’s relationship with Kelce and the NFL.</p>
<p>Pentagon spokesperson <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/10/pentagon-taylor-swift-fox-00134866">Sabrina Singh</a> and NFL commissioner <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/68206676">Roger Goodell</a> have both made statements discrediting the conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>But if I were to trade one conspiracy for another, the situation could be setting the groundwork for a future theory. Should Donald Trump lose the 2024 election, it would be easy for those who believe these theories to blame Biden and Swift for voter manipulation, contributing to an undemocratic election.</p>
<p>Emotions run high around politics, fandom and football. This situation reveals some of the dangers of conspiratorial thinking: a loss of neutrality, a rise in ideological gaps and less reliance on critical thinking. In the words of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP4TTgt4nb0&ab_channel=TaylorSwiftVEVO">Swift herself</a>, you can’t see facts through fury.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223020/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa Avdeeff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This Super Bowl sees the convergence of two emotional fandoms: Swifties and NFL fans.Melissa Avdeeff, Lecturer in Digital Media, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2209782024-01-30T15:37:47Z2024-01-30T15:37:47ZIntelligence doesn’t make you immune to conspiracy theories – it’s more about thinking style<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571914/original/file-20240129-29-jer3n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C31%2C5145%2C3414&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The QAnon conspiracy theory has many powerful supporters. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-august-29-2020-1805067589">I T S/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the last two decades, and in particular over the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-022-00133-0">last five years</a>, there has been a growing scientific interest in conspiracy theories and people who believe in them. Although, some may think belief in such stories is linked to intelligence, research is beginning to show that how people think could be more important.</p>
<p>Scientists agree that having a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-022-00133-0">measure of skepticism</a> about official accounts of events is healthy and important, but conspiracy theorising can lead to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22000823">dangerous consequences</a> for the individual and for society. </p>
<p>Some conspiracy theories, for example <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/53498434">the QAnon conspiracy</a>, can be considered a minority belief, <a href="https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/Globalism21_ConspiracyTheories_AllCountries.pdf">with a 2021 YouGov poll</a> showing that 8% of those polled in the UK endorsed this conspiracy theory. However, some beliefs are more widespread. A 2018 survey of people from around Europe found <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/23/study-shows-60-of-britons-believe-in-conspiracy-theories">60% of British participants</a> endorsed at least one conspiracy theory. So, who are the people who are more susceptible to conspiracy theorising? </p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-022-00133-0">dramatically growing</a> body of research endeavouring to understand this question. First, let’s re-examine those assumptions about who engages with conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>People with <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/article-abstract/2808358">high education levels</a>, such as doctors and nurses, have been reported to propagate conspiracy theories. So it’s not just about intelligence – education won’t necessarily make you immune. </p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-morbid-curiosity-can-lead-people-to-conspiracy-theories-214532">How morbid curiosity can lead people to conspiracy theories</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Critical thinking</h2>
<p>Research shows that our <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/11/11/207">thinking style</a> can be predictive of susceptibility to conspiracy theories. The <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2079-3200/11/11/207">dual processing theory of cognitive style</a> suggests that we have two routes which we can use to process information. </p>
<p>One route is the fast, intuitive route which leans more on personal experiences and gut feelings. The other route is a slower, more analytical route which instead relies on elaborative and detailed processing of information.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man protesting alone wearing yellow shirt with graph chart and the word fake" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571915/original/file-20240129-23-sux9qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571915/original/file-20240129-23-sux9qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571915/original/file-20240129-23-sux9qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571915/original/file-20240129-23-sux9qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571915/original/file-20240129-23-sux9qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571915/original/file-20240129-23-sux9qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571915/original/file-20240129-23-sux9qt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Conspiracy theory belief seems to be linked to thinking style.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hannover-germany-0805-conspiracy-theorist-demonstrating-1729104664">philippgehrke.de/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What you tend to see is that people who are not necessarily smarter but who favour the more effortful, analytical thinking style are more resistant to conspiracy beliefs. For example, a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027714001632?casa_token=EczBVWzrbWsAAAAA:Hq12hyS1txB3Ia_eM5yCVuReXqoVyGafhz2CTrq5U2JkTDsJs7Wl-LKm7Op_H3JVXWF9K5YQLQ">British 2014 study</a> found that those who scored highly for questions such as “I enjoy problems that require hard thinking” were less likely to accept conspiracy beliefs. It also found those who were less likely to engage in effortful thinking styles and more likely to use intuitive thinking showed a higher belief in conspiracy theories. </p>
<p>Similarly, a 2022 study across 45 countries used a cognitive reflection test, which measured engagement in analytical thinking in three questions. It found that participants who engaged in the labour intensive thinking style were <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886922001702">less likely to endorse</a> COVID 19 conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>Critical thinking is a valuable skill, particularly within education, and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010027714001632">has been shown</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-talk-to-someone-about-conspiracy-theories-in-five-simple-steps-197819">buffer susceptibility to</a> conspiracy beliefs. This is probably because this more arduous thinking style allows people time to identify inconsistencies in theories and look to additional resources to verify information.</p>
<h2>Thinking style is not the same as intelligence</h2>
<p>A 2021 <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886920305134">meta-analysis study</a> indicates that an intuitive thinking style is unrelated to intelligence. So, even really smart people could be susceptible to conspiracy beliefs – if they are more inclined to revert to faster, intuitive thinking styles. </p>
<p>Research shows that belief in conspiracy theories is predicted by cognitive biases that come from a reliance on mental shortcuts when processing information. First, conspiracy beliefs seem to be predicted by the flawed belief that <a href="http://www.ask-force.org/web/Discourse/Van-Prooijen-When-consequnce-size-predicts-belief-2014.pdf">big events must have big consequences</a>. </p>
<p>This is known in psychology as <a href="https://www.thebehavioralscientist.com/glossary/proportionality-bias">proportionality bias</a>. It is difficult to accept that events which have such world-changing consequences (for example, the death of a president or the COVID-19 outbreak) can really be caused by comparably “small” causes (for example, a lone gunman or a virus). This is how thinking styles reliant on gut feelings and intuition can lead people to endorse conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>Another example of intuitive thinking styles influencing conspiracy beliefs is the conjunction fallacy. A <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1984-03110-001">conjunction fallacy</a> is the erroneous belief that the likelihood of two independent events occurring together is higher than the probability of the events occurring alone. Have a try at the Linda Problem:</p>
<p><em>Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations. Which is more probable?</em></p>
<p>a) Linda is a bank teller.</p>
<p>b) Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement.</p>
<p>The most probable is a) Linda is a bank teller as, statistically, the probably probability of one event occurring is always higher than the combination. However, research shows that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/acp.2995">higher conjunction fallacy errors</a> are associated with stronger conspiracy beliefs. So people prone to conspiratorial thinking would be more likely to say b.</p>
<p>Exposure to conspiracy beliefs have also <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.12018?casa_token=r4JDrnxTCu8AAAAA%3A-Pcye9myJ9Wo0npNCXco7jIsoT-_JUrv1K07NwRqZF8_a15-qg6nCx-jKKzaQ-SHaMtEJJUrTyNzAy8w">consistently been shown</a> to increase people’s susceptibility to them, even if they don’t realise that they have had a <a href="https://kar.kent.ac.uk/18928/">change in belief</a>. </p>
<p>It may sound concerning that anyone could be susceptible to conspiracy beliefs. However, these studies are helping researchers find interventions which can increase analytical and critical thinking styles and so buffer against susceptibility to such beliefs. A <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280902&s=03">2023 review</a> of 25 different studies found these types of interventions were a promising tool to tackle the dangerous consequences of conspiracy beliefs. </p>
<p>The more we understand about the psychology behind conspiracy theories, the better equipped we are to tackle them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220978/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darel Cookson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Being smart won’t protect you from falling down conspiracy rabbit holes.Darel Cookson, Lecturer in Psychology, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2215402024-01-26T17:58:02Z2024-01-26T17:58:02ZHow cars and road infrastructure became part of the UK’s culture wars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570950/original/file-20240123-21-23bz6q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/motorway-complex-road-junction-aerial-view-1198012252">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When government ministers began <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/news/198260/active-travel-government-programme-offtrack-as-funding-reductions-hold-back-progress/">to defund</a> cycling and walking infrastructure in England in 2023, climate campaigners were confused. It marked a significant shift in transport policy and seemed at odds with the government’s own targets to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-cut-emissions-from-transport-ban-fossil-fuel-cars-electrify-transport-and-get-people-walking-and-cycling-154363">reduce carbon emissions</a> from road transport. </p>
<p>But a recent <a href="https://transportactionnetwork.org.uk/campaign/legal-action/cwis2-legal-challenge/">legal challenge</a> led by sustainable transport campaigning group Transport Action Network has shown that this ministerial decision-making was driven, in part, by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/10/shift-from-15-minute-cities-in-england-partly-due-to-conspiracy-theories">conspiracy theories</a>.</p>
<p>Urban planners have long devised schemes to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213624X22000281">discourage people</a> from using their cars for short trips. Initiatives including 15-minute cities, low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and ultra-low emissions zones (Ulez) are designed to <a href="https://theconversation.com/cycling-is-ten-times-more-important-than-electric-cars-for-reaching-net-zero-cities-157163">promote more active forms of travel</a>. </p>
<p>The aim is to reduce traffic congestion and toxic pollution and the negative impacts both have on residents’ <a href="https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/5.16%20Congestion_report_v03.pdf">quality of life</a> and health. Less car use is also widely recognised as one of the most effective ways to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/16/12-most-effective-ways-cars-cities-europe">combat the climate crisis</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protestors with colourful banners and posters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570945/original/file-20240123-23-qhzyhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570945/original/file-20240123-23-qhzyhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570945/original/file-20240123-23-qhzyhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570945/original/file-20240123-23-qhzyhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570945/original/file-20240123-23-qhzyhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570945/original/file-20240123-23-qhzyhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570945/original/file-20240123-23-qhzyhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People protesting the Ulez expansion in Uxbridge, in 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/uxbridge-london-9-july-2023-people-2330803717">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet, in the wake of COVID-19, these simple measures have become entangled with anti-lockdown conspiracy theories. They have been <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2023-10-04/what-is-the-15-minute-cities-conspiracy-theory">misconstrued</a> as restrictions on people’s basic freedoms. According to this misinformation, the measures could lead to outright bans on car driving, residents being imprisoned in small areas and even people being prevented from leaving their homes at certain times of day. </p>
<p>These theories are <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/conservative-party-conference-15-minute-cities-mark-harper-conspiracy/">fiction, not fact</a>. But they are nonetheless born of a national context in which public transport provision is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/06/bus-neglect-national-failure-public-policy-motorists">failing</a>. For many people across the UK – particularly outside of London – <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-statistics-great-britain-2022/transport-statistics-great-britain-2022-domestic-travel">car travel</a> is not simply the preferred means of mobility: it is their only viable option.</p>
<p>In my recent book, <a href="https://lwbooks.co.uk/product/the-broken-promise-of-infrastructure">The Broken Promise of Infrastructure</a>, I show that belief in these conspiracy theories is driven, in part, by plummeting public confidence in government. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/16/uk-wasting-tens-of-billions-on-crumbling-infrastructure-and-badly-run-projects">Wasteful spending</a> and unprecedented levels of <a href="https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2023/07/10/mathew-lawrence-on-why-privatisation-has-been-a-costly-failure-in-britain">privatisation</a> have weakened Britain’s basic infrastructure through disrepair and neglect, lack of reinvestment and accountability, and endemic mismanagement. Repeated broken promises – including the failures of “levelling up” – have, in turn, eroded the population’s faith in national government. <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/trustingovernmentuk/2022">In 2022</a>, only 35% of people surveyed said they trusted government, well below the average for high-income countries.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bikes and bike shadows on a cycle path." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570943/original/file-20240123-19-a391ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570943/original/file-20240123-19-a391ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570943/original/file-20240123-19-a391ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570943/original/file-20240123-19-a391ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570943/original/file-20240123-19-a391ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570943/original/file-20240123-19-a391ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570943/original/file-20240123-19-a391ox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The benefits of active travel have been overshadowed by electoral strategies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/black-metal-fence-on-gray-concrete-pavement-VzeXmOkLf20">Nick Page|Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Political rhetoric</h2>
<p>At the Conservative party conference in September 2023, the secretary of state for transport, Mark Harper, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66990302">gave credence</a> to the evidently false notion that 15-minute cities meant “local councils can decide how often you go to the shops”.</p>
<p>A few days earlier, <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/24208749/rishi-sunak-car-drivers-ltn-speed-scheme/">Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had claimed</a> in a high-profile interview with the Sun newspaper, that such policies didn’t “reflect the values of Britain”. He promised to “slam the breaks on the war on motorists”. </p>
<p>These strange rhetorical appeals to conspiracy theories are driven, in part, by crude political strategy. Amid a wave of by-election defeats in 2023, the Tories <a href="https://theconversation.com/byelection-losses-are-terrible-for-the-conservatives-but-there-are-glimmers-of-hope-209902">held on to Uxbridge</a> partly because of local opposition to the expansion of London’s Ulez. </p>
<p>In reality, the Uxbridge vote was determined as much by <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/uxbridge-south-ruislip-ulez-expansion-sadiq-khan-conservative-labour/">low turnout</a> as it was by Ulez. The electoral potential of this opposition to anti-car policies in a national contest is <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a6e5875f-666b-46d3-9cc6-b0e78302994d">ambiguous</a>, at best. Sunak has nonetheless sought to capitalise on any vote-winning policy issue he can find, even if it further damages public trust in government.</p>
<p>But there is a bigger story here, alluded to by Sunak when he <a href="https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1685582472262602752?lang=en">tweeted</a>, in July 2023, “Talking about freedom, sat in Margaret Thatcher’s old Rover… it’s why I’m reviewing anti-car schemes across the country.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1685582472262602752"}"></div></p>
<p>In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher advocated an ideological connection between the deregulation of markets and the expansion of car use. She <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/28/m25-london-orbital-margaret-thatcher-25">opened</a> the M25 motorway two days after the “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37751599">big bang</a>”, an agreement between her government and the London Stock Exchange which unleashed unprecedented deregulatory measures on finance capital. </p>
<p>The freeholds on motorway service stations were some of the first publicly owned assets that Thatcher privatised. Meanwhile, her notorious 1989 white paper, titled <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/supadu-imgix/plutopress-uk/pdfs/look-inside/LI-9781786807991.pdf">Roads for Prosperity</a>, committed to “the biggest road-building programme since the Romans”. At a cost of £6 billion, it more than doubled the road budget at the time, not shrinking but expanding state intervention. </p>
<p>Since the 2010s, successive Conservative governments have repeatedly <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0967070X18308424">resurrected</a> Thatcher’s ideological obsession with cars. In 2011, the then transport secretary, Philip Hammond, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-proposes-80mph-motorway-speed-limit">argued</a> that the five minutes gained by travelling at 80mph rather than 70mph along a motorway provide a boost to the economy in the same way as a tax exemption or subsidy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A vintage photo of cars on an English motorway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570937/original/file-20240123-29-zxmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570937/original/file-20240123-29-zxmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570937/original/file-20240123-29-zxmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570937/original/file-20240123-29-zxmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570937/original/file-20240123-29-zxmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570937/original/file-20240123-29-zxmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570937/original/file-20240123-29-zxmqv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The UK government has long used car travel as a political tool.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a-couple-of-cars-that-are-sitting-in-the-street-iY-h-LErD_0">Crispin Jones|Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, during her successful campaign to become prime minister, Liz Truss <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/19671673/liz-truss-consider-scrapping-70mph-speed-limits-motorways/">suggested</a> doing away with the 70mph speed limit on Britain’s motorways. Once she took office, this was followed by her disastrous mini-budget, which, not coincidentally, aimed to deregulate finance and stimulate a second “big bang”. </p>
<p>The road safety experts who took Truss seriously <a href="https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/uk-news/liz-truss-plan-scrap-motorway-24933673">pointed out</a> pressing dangers, from increased fatalities to rising emissions. But this response misses the populist appeal that political advocates of the free market are trying to achieve through pro-car rhetoric. </p>
<p>In connecting the individual autonomy that car travel enables to neoliberal economic policies, these advocates are wielding the feelings of freedom elicted by the <a href="https://www.matthewbcrawford.com/why-we-drive">“open road”</a>. In this way, they are spreading the idea that government intervention of any kind is an infringement on individual liberty. </p>
<p>This ignores the crucial role that government has always had in building and maintaining the country’s roads. It also deflects attention from Britain’s crumbling transport infrastructure. Instead of demanding the <a href="https://tribunemag.co.uk/2023/10/public-transport-is-a-disaster-but-it-could-be-a-panacea">state intervene</a> to fix things, this strategy deliberately casts intervention itself as the problem. </p>
<p>Most dangerously, it makes cynical use of conspiracy theories. These often take root in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/25369/chapter-abstract/192470181?redirectedFrom=fulltext">disempowered communities</a>. Turning infrastructure into a politically expedient culture war issue <a href="https://www.redpepper.org.uk/political-parties-and-ideologies/conservative-party/levelling-up-is-part-of-the-culture-war/">only serves</a> to further disempower those most in need of its improvement. </p>
<p>The car has turned from a private convenience into a public nuisance. If the government is serious about improving people’s lives, it should increase investment in affordable public transport and accessible walking and cycling infrastructure. This is what will empower communities to take back control of their neighbourhoods.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Conspiracy theories about urban planning are born of a national context in which public transport provision is failingDominic Davies, Senior Lecturer in English, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2154242024-01-08T15:09:01Z2024-01-08T15:09:01ZHow liberal conspiracy theories can be just as destructive as their extremist counterparts<p>Liberal commentators frequently condemn conspiracy theories that threaten public safety. The US mainstream media exploded in 2016 when an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-pizzagate-the-fake-news-conspiracy-theory-2016-12?r=US&IR=T">armed man harassed</a> diners in a Washington DC pizzeria, allegedly because he subscribed to the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/53498434">QAnon</a> online conspiracy theory claiming that a Hillary Clinton-connected paedophile ring was operating from the restaurant. </p>
<p>British media reacted similarly in 2020 to a man who <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2021-10-01/gateshead-5g-mast-arsonist-was-suffering-severe-mental-health-problems">destroyed a 5G mast</a> for fear it was spreading COVID-19. Yet criminal as these actions were, their negative impacts were limited.</p>
<p>But what if liberal conspiracy theories can be even more wrong-headed and damaging than their fringe counterparts? Our recent <a href="https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformations/vol-2023-issue-109/article-9839/">research</a> explores this question in detail. </p>
<h2>Conspiracy theories, right and left</h2>
<p>Liberal observers often present conspiracism as the preserve of right or left-wingers. Journalist <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Voodoo_Histories.html?id=56QQYTn2LhgC&redir_esc=y">David Aaronovitch</a> and philosopher <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9902059/">Quassim Cassam</a>, for example, attribute fallacious conspiracy theorising to the political “extremes”.</p>
<p>This preoccupation with the conspiracist fringes has some validity. Rightist conspiracy theories are numerous, ranging from “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14661381221146983">great replacement</a>” paranoia about the presumed elimination of white populations in the west, to the supposed machinations of ‘bogeymen’ such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569775.2020.1781332">George Soros</a>, whose philanthropy is blamed for funding progressive causes like Black Lives Matter. </p>
<p>Right-wing conspiracism relies on <a href="https://econpapers.repec.org/article/wlyamposc/v_3a58_3ay_3a2014_3ai_3a4_3ap_3a952-966.htm">simplistic narratives</a> of good versus evil, as well as sexist, racist and nationalist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/08/us-vs-them-the-sinister-techniques-of-othering-and-how-to-avoid-them">othering</a>.</p>
<p>Left-wing conspiracists, meanwhile, include those who overestimate the role of western interference in foreign protests. For instance, recent pro-democracy uprisings in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XeloI7WK2c">Hong Kong</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqsqk_1I4jA">Iran</a> were often dismissed as western-orchestrated actions by pundits on platforms such as RT, the Russian news network. According to academic <a href="https://www.ejournals.eu/ZM/2020/4-2020/art/17427/">Grażyna Piechota</a>, RT is guilty of “building a conspiracy message [and] using it as a political instrument”.</p>
<p>Older and more damaging are left-wing conspiracy theories of an antisemitic nature – rightly dubbed “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/gb/universitypress/subjects/history/european-history-after-1450/socialism-fools-leftist-origins-modern-anti-semitism?format=HB">the socialism of fools</a>” – which have blamed international Jewish wealth and power for injustice, corruption and unemployment.</p>
<h2>Combating Corbyn</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Left_s_Jewish_Problem/L07RDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=dave+rich&printsec=frontcover">Dave Rich</a>, head of policy at the <a href="https://cst.org.uk/about-cst">Community Security Trust</a> (an organisation set up to protect the Jewish community) argues that, “most left-wing people are not antisemitic and, overall, the left’s history of opposing antisemitism outweighs its history of indulging it”.</p>
<p>But this didn’t stop exaggerated and indeed conspiratorial antisemitism allegations emerging from the British political centre in the mid-2010s to discredit then-Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters. While antisemitism has been proven to be a <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/11/24/labour-no-worse-parties-anti-semitism-shami-chakrabarti-claims/">scourge across all political parties</a> in Britain and there was indeed a cluster of actionable cases of antisemitism among Labour members at the time, just <a href="https://politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/the-never-ending-saga-over-antisemitism-and-the-labour-party/">0.3% of more than 500,000 members</a> in 2018-19 faced such charges, according to <a href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/gumg/about/">Glasgow University Media Group’s</a> Greg Philo and his co-authors. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, Corbyn’s critics asserted that anti-Jewish racism was rife among the party’s rank and file. Their statements involved fiery and excessive rhetoric – exactly what liberal “<a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/what-makes-a-conspiracy-theory">debunkers</a>” decry in left and right-wing conspiracism. </p>
<p>Corbyn was accused by centrist Labour MP Ruth Smeeth of making the party “<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jeremy-corbyn-has-made-labour-unsafe-for-jews-says-mp-ruth-smeeth_uk_57751e83e4b0d18f7514b2f4">unsafe for Jews</a>” and by liberal Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-labour-antisemitism-lord-jonathan-sacks-zionist-enoch-powell-a8519221.html">risking</a> “engulfing Britain in … flames of hatred”. Sacks went further by likening Corbyn to the infamous racist politician Enoch Powell. </p>
<p>Another feature of irrational conspiracy theorising – right, left or centre – is misinformation. In their <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Bad_News_for_Labour.html?id=u5hDxQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">rigorous examination</a> of the situation, Bad News for Labour: Antisemitism, The Party And Public Belief, Philo and his co-authors uncovered the liberal media’s various “reporting errors” and its inflation of the number of members disciplined for antisemitism. The <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Bad_News_for_Labour.html?id=u5hDxQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">effect on public opinion</a> was such that, “on average people believed that a third of Labour Party members had been reported for antisemitism”. </p>
<p>Philo and his colleagues also noted the efforts made by anti-Corbynites to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Bad_News_for_Labour.html?id=u5hDxQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">conflate</a> the Labour leader’s longstanding criticisms of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tiny-west-bank-village-is-due-to-be-demolished-heres-how-international-law-could-be-used-to-intervene-97885">illegal Israeli occupation</a> of Palestinian territories with anti-Jewish racism.</p>
<p>Corbyn himself repeatedly <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/jeremy-corbyn-anti-semitic-its-offensive-to-call-me/">denied</a> accusations of institutional antisemitism in the party but was suspended for claiming that such charges were “dramatically overstated for political reasons”. Leaked documents from within Labour and an <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/25/what-really-happened-during-labours-anti-semitism-crisis">Al Jazeera investigative report</a> found that antisemitism had been “weaponised” against Corbyn by his adversaries. </p>
<p>In 2016, both the <a href="https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Chakrabarti-Inquiry-Report-30June16.pdf">Chakrabarty Report</a> and the <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmhaff/136/136.pdf">Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee</a> inquiry concluded that there was, in the words of the latter, “no reliable, empirical evidence to support the notion that there is a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes within the Labour Party than any other political party”.</p>
<h2>Trying to topple Trump</h2>
<p>Throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, information including a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele posited collusion between Trump’s aides and Russian operatives, and the <a href="https://deadline.com/2017/06/cnn-retracts-russian-investment-fund-story-anthony-scaramucci-1202119592/">involvement of Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci</a> in a Russian hedge fund. There were even claims about Trump cavorting with Russian prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room.</p>
<p>While US liberal media outlets CNN and MSNBC promoted these rumours, they turned out to be <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/01/20/beyond-buzzfeed-the-10-worst-most-embarrassing-u-s-media-failures-on-the-trumprussia-story/">mostly baseless</a>. CNN <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2017/06/26/media/cnn-announcement-retracted-article/index.html">sacked three journalists</a> over the Scaramucci inaccuracies, while special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2019/03/mueller-concludes-investigation/">found no evidence</a> linking the Trump campaign to Russian interference in US politics.</p>
<p>These liberal conspiracy theories about Trump and Corbyn are as simplistic and fallacious as much leftist and rightist conspiracism because they too often ignore wider economic and political contexts.</p>
<p>The antisemitism slur allowed the liberal media to overlook the Corbyn project’s <a href="https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/792791/the-longest-suicide-vote-in-history-the-labour-party-leadership-election-of-2015">widespread popularity</a> among voters disaffected with the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/08/welcome-age-anger-brexit-trump">neoliberal settlement</a> – the downscaling of state responsibility and the increased power of the markets – in which liberals remain invested.</p>
<p>In the Trump imbroglio, the obsession with Russian collusion excused liberals from acknowledging the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/08/welcome-age-anger-brexit-trump">socio-political factors</a> underpinning Trump’s rise, primarily the disaffection of many Americans in an era of declining wages and living standards.</p>
<h2>Deadly dangers of liberal conspiracism</h2>
<p>Conspiracism from the centre can also have deadly consequences. For instance, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, described by US intellectual Noam Chomsky as “<a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/05/the-worst-crime-of-the-21st-century">the worst crime of the 21st century</a>”, was justified by western governments’ <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-45minute-claim-was-false-535224.html">false claim</a> that Saddam Hussein could deploy deadly weapons within 45 minutes. This claim was vulnerable to the “problematic evidential practices associated with conspiracy theories”, as philosopher <a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/DENTFO-14">Matthew XR Dentith</a> observes.</p>
<p>Irrational conspiracism has tainted the liberal case for many other western interventions from the <a href="https://sites.smith.edu/fys169-f19/2019/12/06/the-u-s-s-maine-disaster-yellow-journalism-at-its-finest/">Spanish-American War</a> in 1898, when the US government wrongly accused the Spanish of sabotaging an American ship in Cuba, to the 2011 NATO attack on <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/22/libya-and-the-myth-of-humanitarian-intervention/">Libya</a>, which was justified by the bogus allegation that Colonel Gaddafi was planning to massacre civilians. </p>
<p>The human cost of these wars – at least 20 million lives, <a href="https://davidswanson.org/warlist/#:%7E:text=Since%2520World%2520War%2520II%252C%2520during%2520a%2520supposed%2520golden,dropped%2520bombs%2520on%2520people%2520in%2520over%252030%2520countries.">according to one estimate</a> – well exceeds the damage done in the name of peripheral conspiracy theories such as QAnon.</p>
<p><em>This article originally stated that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found no evidence of Russian interference in US politics. This has been amended to make clear the investigation found no evidence linking the Trump campaign to Russian interference in US politics.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Harper is affiliated with the Socialist Party of Great Britain.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Sykes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The liberal establishment can also be responsible for disseminating conspiracy theories.Tom Sykes, Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Global Journalism, University of PortsmouthStephen Harper, Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Studies, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189492024-01-02T16:50:04Z2024-01-02T16:50:04ZWhy have authoritarianism and libertarianism merged? A political psychologist on ‘the vulnerability of the modern self’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564551/original/file-20231208-29-yahofn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=290%2C121%2C7790%2C4022&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The so-called Qanon shaman, Jacob Chansley, at the Capitol riot. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Johnny Silvercloud</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Logically, authoritarianism and libertarianism are contradictory. Supporters of authoritarian leaders share a state of mind in which they take direction from an idealised figurehead and closely identify with the group which that leader represents. To be libertarian is to see the freedom of the individual as the supreme principle of politics. It is core to the economics and politics of neo-liberalism, as well as to some bohemian counter-cultures. </p>
<p>As a state of mind, libertarianism is superficially the opposite of authoritarianism. Identification with the leader or group is anathema and all forms of authority are regarded with suspicion. Instead the ideal is to experience oneself as a self-contained, free agent. </p>
<p>Yet there is a history of these two outlooks being intertwined. Consider Donald Trump, whose re-election in 2024 would be seen by many as adding to the international rise of authoritarianism. </p>
<p><a href="https://unherd.com/2023/12/why-all-this-trump-hysteria/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3">Others</a> might see him as insufficiently focused to be an effective authoritarian leader, but it’s not difficult to imagine him governing by executive order, and he has successfully sought an authoritarian relationship with his followers. He is an object of idealisation and a source of “truth” for the community of followers he purports to represent.</p>
<p>Yet at the same time, in his rhetoric and his persona of predatory freewheeler, in his wealth and indifference to others, Trump offers a hyper-realisation of a certain kind of individualistic freedom.</p>
<p>Trumpism’s fusion of the authoritarian and the libertarian was embodied in the January 6 attack in Washington DC. The insurgents who stormed the Capitol that day passionately wanted to install Trump as an autocratic leader. He had not, after all, won a democratic election.</p>
<p>But these people were also conducting a carnivalesque assertion of their individual rights, as they defined them, to attack the American state. Among them were followers of the bizarre conspiracy theory QAnon, who lionised Trump as the heroic authority figure secretly leading the fightback against a child-torturing cabal of elites. </p>
<p>Alongside them were the <a href="https://theconversation.com/proud-boys-members-convicted-of-seditious-conspiracy-3-essential-reads-on-the-group-and-right-wing-extremist-white-nationalism-205094">Proud Boys</a>, whose misty libertarianism is paired with a proto-authoritarian commitment to politics as violence.</p>
<h2>New age meets anti-vax</h2>
<p>Conspiracy theories are also involved in other recent examples of authoritarian-libertarian hybridity. Beliefs that COVID-19 vaccines (or lockdowns, or the virus itself) were attempts by a malevolent power to attack or control us were fuelled by a growing army of conspiracists. But they were also facilitated by libertarian ideologies which rationalise suspicion of and antipathy towards authority of all sorts – and support refusals to comply with public health measures. </p>
<p>In the UK, some small towns and rural areas have seen an influx of people involved in a variety of pursuits – arts and crafts, alternative medicine and other “wellness” practices, spirituality and mysticism. Research is lacking but a recent <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001mssl">BBC investigation</a> in the English town of Totnes showed how this can create a strong “alternative” ethos in which soft, hippie-ish forms of libertarianism are prominent – and very hospitable to conspiracism.</p>
<p>One might have thought that Totnes and some other towns like it would be the last places we’d find sympathy for authoritarian politics. However, the BBC investigation showed that although there may be no single dominant leader at work, new age anti-authority sentiments can morph into intolerance and hard-edged demands for retribution against the people seen as orchestrating vaccinations and lockdowns.</p>
<p>This is reflected in some COVID conspiracists calling for those who led the public health response to be tried at <a href="https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/98809">“Nuremberg 2.0”</a>, a special court where they should face the death penalty. </p>
<p>When we remember that a virulent sense of grievance against an enemy or oppressor who must be punished is a regular feature of authoritarian culture, we start to see how the dividing lines between the libertarian mindset and the authoritarian perspective have blurred around COVID.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/conspiracy-theories-about-the-pandemic-are-spreading-offline-as-well-as-through-social-media-167418">Conspiracy theories about the pandemic are spreading offline as well as through social media</a>
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<p>A <a href="https://savanta.com/knowledge-centre/published-polls/conspiracy-poll-kings-college-london-13-june-2023/">disturbing survey</a> conducted earlier this year for King’s College London even found that 23% of the sample would be prepared to take to the streets in support of a “deep state” conspiracy theory. And of that group, 60% believed the use of violence in the name of such a movement would be justified. </p>
<h2>Two responses to the same anxiety</h2>
<p>A psychological approach can help us to understand the dynamics of this puzzling fusion. As <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Escape-Freedom-Erich-Fromm-ebook/dp/B00BPJOC7W/ref=sr_1_6?crid=1N6JLLNQVVBYU&keywords=erich+fromm&qid=1702035192&s=books&sprefix=erich+from%2Cstripbooks%2C192&sr=1-6">Erich Fromm</a> and others have shown, our ideological affinities are linked to unconscious structures of feeling. </p>
<p>At this level, authoritarianism and libertarianism are the interchangeable products of the same underlying psychological difficulty: the <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-61510-9_41-1">vulnerability of the modern self</a>.</p>
<p>Authoritarian political movements offer a sense of belonging to a collective, and of being protected by its strong leader. This may be completely illusory, but it nonetheless provides a sense of safety in a world of threatening change and risk. As individuals, we are vulnerable to feeling powerless and abandoned. As a group, we are safe.</p>
<p>Libertarianism, in contrast, proceeds from the illusion that as individuals we are fundamentally self-sufficient. We are independent of others and don’t need protection from authorities. This fantasy of freedom, like the authoritarian fantasy of the ideal leader, also generates a sense of invulnerability for those who believe in it.</p>
<p>Both outlooks serve to protect against the potentially overwhelming sense of being in a society on which we depend but which we feel we cannot trust. While politically divergent, they are psychologically equivalent. Both are ways for the vulnerable self to ward off existential anxieties. There is therefore a kind of belt-and-braces logic in toggling between them or even occupying both positions simultaneously.</p>
<p>In any specific context, authoritarianism is more likely to have the necessary focus and organisation to prevail. But its hybrid fusion with libertarianism will have broadened its support base by seducing people with anti-authority impulses.</p>
<p>And as things currently stand, we’re at risk of seeing increasing polarisation between, on one hand, this anxiety-driven, defensive form of combined politics, and on the other, efforts to preserve reality-based, non-defensive modes of political discourse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218949/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Richards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is now not uncommon to find people supporting leaders like Donald Trump while insisting the state refrains from intervening in their lives.Barry Richards, Emeritus Professor of Political Psychology, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195792023-12-29T11:42:01Z2023-12-29T11:42:01ZWhy some people don’t trust science – and how to change their minds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567234/original/file-20231222-23-r02y8p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C15%2C1421%2C1035&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nasa/wikipedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the pandemic, a third of people in the UK reported that their trust in science had increased, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278169">we recently discovered</a>. But 7% said that it had decreased. Why is there such variety of responses?</p>
<p>For many years, it was thought that the main reason some people reject science was a simple deficit of knowledge and a mooted fear of the unknown. Consistent with this, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662506070159">many surveys</a> reported that attitudes to science are more positive among those people who know more of the textbook science. </p>
<p>But if that were indeed the core problem, the remedy would be simple: inform people about the facts. This strategy, which dominated science communication through much of the later part of the 20th century, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097172180901400202">has, however, failed</a> at multiple levels. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1023695519981">controlled experiments</a>, giving people scientific information was found not to change attitudes. And in the UK, scientific messaging over genetically modified technologies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097172180901400202">has even backfired</a>. </p>
<p>The failure of the information led strategy may be down to people discounting or avoiding information if it contradicts their beliefs – also known as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.2.2.175">confirmation bias</a>. However, a second problem is that some trust neither the message nor the messenger. This means that a distrust in science isn’t necessarily just down to a deficit of knowledge, but a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/097172180901400202">deficit of trust</a>. </p>
<p>With this in mind, many research teams including ours decided to find out why some people do and some people don’t trust science. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278169">One strong predictor</a> for people distrusting science during the pandemic stood out: being distrusting of science in the first place. </p>
<h2>Understanding distrust</h2>
<p>Recent evidence has revealed that people who reject or distrust science are not especially well informed about it, but more importantly, they typically <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-018-0520-3">believe that they do understand</a> the science. </p>
<p>This result has, over the past five years, been found over and over in studies investigating attitudes to a plethora of scientific issues, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.06.032">vaccines</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-018-0520-3">GM foods</a>. It also holds, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001915">we discovered</a>, even when no specific technology is asked about. However, they may not apply to certain politicised sciences, such as <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abo0038">climate change</a>.</p>
<p>Recent work also found that overconfident people who dislike science tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/d5fz2">have a misguided belief</a> that theirs is the common viewpoint and hence that many others agree with them. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564799/original/file-20231211-29-fgl8fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C162%2C3721%2C2329&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Image of a protest of protest by covid-19 sceptics." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564799/original/file-20231211-29-fgl8fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C162%2C3721%2C2329&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564799/original/file-20231211-29-fgl8fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564799/original/file-20231211-29-fgl8fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564799/original/file-20231211-29-fgl8fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564799/original/file-20231211-29-fgl8fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564799/original/file-20231211-29-fgl8fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564799/original/file-20231211-29-fgl8fe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Covid protest in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-april-24-2021-unite-1966630096">Devis M/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other evidence suggests that some of those who reject science also gain psychological satisfaction by framing their alternative explanations in a manner that <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-response/fighting-disinformation/identifying-conspiracy-theories_en">can’t be disproven</a>. Such is often the nature of conspiracy theories – be it microchips in vaccines or COVID being caused by 5G radiation. </p>
<p>But the whole point of science is to examine and test theories that can be proven wrong – theories scientists call falsifiable. Conspiracy theorists, on the other hand, often reject information that doesn’t align with their preferred explanation by, as a last resort, questioning instead the <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/coronavirus-response/fighting-disinformation/identifying-conspiracy-theories_en">motives of the messenger</a>. </p>
<p>When a person who trusts the scientific method debates with someone who doesn’t, they are essentially playing by different rules of engagement. This means it is hard to convince sceptics that they might be wrong. </p>
<h2>Finding solutions</h2>
<p>So what we can one do with this new understanding of attitudes to science?</p>
<p>The messenger is every bit as important as the message. Our work confirms many prior surveys showing that politicians, for example, aren’t trusted to communicate science, whereas university professors <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001915">are</a>. This should be kept in mind.</p>
<p>The fact that some people hold negative attitudes reinforced by a misguided belief that many others agree with them suggests a further potential strategy: tell people what the consensus position is. The advertising industry got there first. Statements such as “eight out ten cat owners say their pet prefers this brand of cat food” are popular.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221083219">meta-analysis</a> of 43 studies investigating this strategy (these were “randomised control trials” – the gold standard in scientific testing) found support for this approach to alter belief in scientific facts. In specifying the consensus position, it implicitly clarifies what is misinformation or unsupported ideas, meaning it would also address the problem that <a href="https://www.sfi.ie/resources/SFI-Science-in-Ireland-Barometer.pdf">half of people</a> don’t know what is true owing to circulation of conflicting evidence. </p>
<p>A complementary approach is to prepare people for the possibility of misinformation. Misinformation spreads fast and, unfortunately, each attempt to debunk it acts to bring the misinformation more into view. Scientists call this the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612451018">continued influence effect</a>”. Genies never get put back into bottles. Better is to anticipate objections, or <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abo6254">inoculate people</a> against the strategies used to promote misinformation. This is called “prebunking”, as opposed to debunking. </p>
<p>Different strategies may be needed in different contexts, though. Whether the science in question is established with a consensus among experts, such as climate change, or cutting edge new research into the unknown, such as for a completely new virus, matters. For the latter, explaining what we know, what we don’t know and what we are doing – and emphasising that results are provisional – <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03189-1">is a good way to go</a>. </p>
<p>By emphasising uncertainty in fast changing fields we can prebunk the objection that a sender of a message cannot be trusted as they said one thing one day and something else later.</p>
<p>But no strategy is likely to be 100% effective. We found that even with widely debated <a href="https://genetics.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Copy-of-Public-Perception-of-Genetics.pdf">PCR tests for COVID</a>, 30% of the public said they hadn’t heard of PCR. </p>
<p>A common quandary for much science communication may in fact be that it appeals to those already engaged with science. Which may be why you read this.</p>
<p>That said, the new science of communication suggests it is certainly worth trying to reach out to those who are disengaged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219579/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurence D. Hurst receives funding from The Evolution Education Trust. He is affiliated with The Genetics Society.
Dr Cristina Fonseca also contributed to this article as well as to some of the research mentioned that was funded by The Genetics Society.</span></em></p>People who are suspicious of science often assume they are understand it well – and that others agree with them.Laurence D. Hurst, Professor of Evolutionary Genetics at The Milner Centre for Evolution, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2187682023-12-04T17:09:35Z2023-12-04T17:09:35ZHow conspiracy theories can affect the communities they attack – new research<p>Scientists have learned a lot about <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12568">why people believe in conspiracy theories</a> and how they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101363">harm society</a> over the past couple of decades. Yet little is known about how the groups targeted by conspiracy theories feel and behave.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.12690">new research</a> found that conspiracy theories can make people from their target communities want to help and support each other. And we also found that popular conspiracy theories about groups of people can make them more fearful and distrustful of people from outside their group.</p>
<p>This means conspiracy theories probably do even more harm to society than people realise. Not only do they <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.12385">stoke up hatred</a> against groups of people, but they also make it harder for the targets of conspiracy theories to feel that they can safely interact with people from outside their community. </p>
<p>Jewish people are often the targets of erroneous conspiracy beliefs. For example, for centuries, many conspiracy theories have centred around a belief that Jewish people have <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.12385">a secretive influence over world affairs</a>.
Such beliefs are often <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aap9559">widely shared on social media</a> and are probably seen by and affect many who are part of the target group. </p>
<p>In our research, we wanted to look at the impact of shared conspiracy theories on the people they target. In a series of studies <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.12690">published in the British Journal of Psychology</a>, we examined how Jewish people’s awareness of these conspiracy theories affected their emotions and behaviour.</p>
<p>Our previous research into the <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjso.12269?casa_token=gCMOpQU0FqAAAAAA%3ACMHEwz6Q8XaOWLEdeqg5r5N-5UP-ZoGB68ru8SFJMjgggoCLF0O3fs2idG3qBVaksQIIh0URPVo">impact of hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community</a> found such attacks made them feel anxious, angry and suspicious of other people. So we expected that a perception that conspiracy beliefs against Jewish people are popular may lead to similar feelings of anxiety and a reluctance to interact with non-Jewish people. </p>
<p>Our first study, carried out in January 2020 with 250 predominately US Jewish participants, supported these hypotheses. We found that when participants rated Jewish conspiracy theories as popular among non-Jews, this was associated with them feeling more threatened. It was also associated with them being more likely to want to avoid contact with people outside of the Jewish community.</p>
<p>We followed this up in July 2020 with an experiment in which 210 US Jews read two different articles. Half of them read an article which claimed many non-Jewish people believe in Jewish conspiracy theories. The other half read an article which claimed only a few non-Jewish people believe in such conspiracy theories. </p>
<p>The first group reported feeling more threatened. These participants felt more anxious and believed that other Jews would feel anxious and angry, too. </p>
<p>We then examined how these emotions may affect intentions for contact with outsiders. Feelings of anxiety were associated with participants wanting to avoid contact with non-Jewish people. Our findings show how awareness of conspiracy theories can affect people’s emotions, particularly anxiety, and can even result in wanting to avoid contact with people outside the target group. </p>
<p>We repeated the news article experiment in a final study in July 2022 with 209 US Jewish participants, with similar results. These participants also reported that conspiracy theories pose a physical threat to Jewish people. This perception of threat, in turn, was again linked to feeling more angry and anxious. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman leans on sofa while looking at phone with stressed expression." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563000/original/file-20231201-24-b0zgqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563000/original/file-20231201-24-b0zgqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563000/original/file-20231201-24-b0zgqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563000/original/file-20231201-24-b0zgqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563000/original/file-20231201-24-b0zgqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563000/original/file-20231201-24-b0zgqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563000/original/file-20231201-24-b0zgqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s no wonder that reading about conspiracy theories that involve your community can make you feel anxious.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/negative-emotions-bad-news-relationship-problems-2006547854">Prostock-studio/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this study, however, we also asked participants if they would provide support to fellow Jews, a measure we call collective action. Participants who felt anxious also seemed more willing to join and increase participation in groups and charities that help Jewish people.</p>
<p>This final study also included a behavioural task. Participants were told that they had the option to chat with another participant who was non-Jewish. In reality, no interaction would occur, but it allowed us to see how participants would respond. </p>
<p>We found that participants who read that the article claiming that many non-Jewish people believe in Jewish conspiracy theories were more likely to avoid chatting with this hypothetical non-Jewish person.</p>
<h2>New perspective</h2>
<p>We can’t fully appreciate how conspiracy theories divide society unless we consider how the targets of these beliefs are affected. Not only do conspiracy theories <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.12385">stoke tensions between groups</a>, but these beliefs can do a lot of emotional harm to people from targeted groups. This can make it harder for them to feel safe outside of their community. </p>
<p>We believe that help and support from within these communities by itself is not enough to tackle the emotional toll of conspiracy theories. Developing anxious feelings about encountering others who may believe these false ideas and beginning to avoid people outside one’s group could lead to other people <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1088868314530518">perceiving the targeted group as insular</a>. This could then reinforce erroneous conspiratorial beliefs. </p>
<p>Our findings are very unlikely to be isolated to the Jewish community. As conspiracy theories target many different groups – from healthcare workers and scientists, to entire social groups – these communities probably experience similar effects. </p>
<p>This means that when we think about how to tackle conspiracy beliefs, we need to think about how we support the people they target too. Increased positive contact between groups unaffected by conspiracy theories and groups affected by them may not only lead to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ejsp.2973">reduced belief in conspiracy theories</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-83277-3_11">more positive attitudes</a> but could reduce the anxiety felt by affected groups about encounters with people from outside the community. </p>
<p>Such encounters could reassure groups affected by conspiracy theories that the numbers of people who believe conspiracy theories is lower than they anticipate, and they have more allies than they anticipate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218768/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Jolley has received funding from the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Paterson has received funding from The British Academy. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew McNeill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Study on antisemitic conspiracy theories shows they can make groups turn inwards for support and more fearful of others.Daniel Jolley, Assistant Professor in Social Psychology, University of NottinghamAndrew McNeill, Assistant Professor in Psychology , Northumbria University, NewcastleJenny Paterson, Assistant Professor in Psychology, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2158032023-11-21T00:58:58Z2023-11-21T00:58:58ZGaza and Ukraine are separate conflicts, but conspiracy theorists are trying to link the two on social media: new research<p>As the war between Israel and Hamas has intensified in Gaza, disinformation and conspiracy theories about the conflict have been increasingly circulating on social media. </p>
<p>At least that’s what I found in my analysis of some 12,000 comments posted on Telegram channels in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. Not surprisingly, I also found language about the war was more likely to be threatening or hateful than language used in comments about other topics. </p>
<p>Many comments on Telegram also linked the Israel-Hamas conflict to dangerous, antisemitic conspiracy theories related to the war between Russia and Ukraine, hundreds of kilometres away on another continent. </p>
<p>For instance, I found the Russian invasion of Ukraine was characterised by these conspiracy theorists as a justified <a href="https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/an-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-is-being-shared-on-telegram-to-justify-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/">resistance against the “Khazarian Mafia”</a> (so-called “fake Jews”) who supposedly govern Ukraine either as Nazis, or like them. </p>
<p>Commenters on Telegram characterised Hamas’ October 7 attack in similar terms – as an attack against “<a href="https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/not-the-real-Jews">fake Zionist Ashkenazi Jews</a>” and Nazis.</p>
<p>Both conflicts were also characterised as “new world order” plots. Proponents of these conspiracies believe that <a href="https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/NCRI-Insights-SitRep-March-2022.pdf">powerful elites (often characterised as Jewish)</a> are <a href="https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/New-World-Order-ISD-External-August2022-.pdf">secretly trying to establish</a> a totalitarian world government or other forms of global oppression.</p>
<p>A comment in one of the channels summarised this view, arguing “these globalists are evil starting a second psyop [psychological operation] front after Ukraine failed”.</p>
<p>Other comments linked the two conflicts by calling Western supporters of Ukraine hypocrites for condemning the actions of Hamas. As one user argued: “The West’s weapons in Ukraine [were] sent to Hamas for the offensive.”</p>
<h2>Polycrises and conspiracies</h2>
<p>Many of these conspiracies are not new on their own. However, what is unique in this situation is the way people have linked two largely unrelated conflicts through conspiracy theories. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5646574/">Research</a> has shown that overlapping crises (<a href="https://theconversation.com/polycrisis-may-be-a-buzzword-but-it-could-help-us-tackle-the-worlds-woes-195280">often referred to as “polycrises”</a>) may accelerate the spread of conspiracies, possibly due to the psychological toll that <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en/inflation/feeling-pressure-psychology">constantly adapting to rapid change</a> places on people.</p>
<p>When crises overlap, such as wars and global pandemics, it can amplify the effects of conspiracies, too. For example, the amount of prejudice and radicalisation seen online may increase. In extreme cases, <a href="https://theconversation.com/queensland-police-killings-show-the-threat-posed-by-conspiracy-theories-how-should-police-respond-196642">individuals may also act on their beliefs</a>.</p>
<p>Although these conspiracies are appearing on the fringes of social media, it’s still important to understand how this type of rhetoric can evolve and how it can be harmful if it seeps into mainstream media or politics. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1724882231640895734"}"></div></p>
<h2>How I conducted my research</h2>
<p>I have been following several public Australian Telegram channels as part of a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/18335330.2023.2203711">broader project</a> investigating the intersection of conspiracy theories and security. </p>
<p>For the latest phase of this research, which has yet to be peer reviewed, I analysed 12,000 comments posted to three of these channels between October 8 and October 11.</p>
<p>To analyse so many messages, I used a topic modelling approach. This is a statistical model that can identify frequently occurring themes (or topics) within large amounts of text-based data. Essentially, topic modelling is similar to highlighting sections of a book containing related themes.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsoc.2022.886498/full">many approaches to topic modelling</a>. I used <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.05794">BERTopic</a>, which generates topics by “clustering” messages with similar characteristics, like words, sentences and other bits of context. In total, I identified 40 distinct topics in the comments I analysed.</p>
<p>I then split these topics into conflict and non-conflict groupings to analyse the sentiment behind them. I used <a href="https://perspectiveapi.com/">Google’s Perspective API</a> algorithm to do this, as it can score text on a scale of zero to one for hateful or threatening language. The results show that conflict topics were more likely to involve threatening and hateful speech.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556638/original/file-20231030-29-7kx7dm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556638/original/file-20231030-29-7kx7dm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556638/original/file-20231030-29-7kx7dm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556638/original/file-20231030-29-7kx7dm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556638/original/file-20231030-29-7kx7dm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556638/original/file-20231030-29-7kx7dm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556638/original/file-20231030-29-7kx7dm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A graph showing the Google Perspective API results.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>A key reason for this is the antisemitic nature of the most common conflict topic grouping (key words: “Israel”, “Jew”, “Hamas”, “Zionist”, “Palestinian”). One representative comment from this group, for instance, called for the elimination of Israel as a state. </p>
<p>I found Islamophobic messages in this topic grouping, as well. For example, some comments suggested Hamas’ actions were reflective of Islamic beliefs or demonstrated the danger posed by Muslims more generally. </p>
<p>The second-largest topic (key words: “Ukraine”, “Russia”, “Putin”, “war”, “Islam”, “propaganda”) captured discussions linking the Hamas attacks to the Russia-Ukraine war. Messages did this by casting both conflicts as justified on similar grounds (a fight against alleged Nazis and Zionists), or by linking them to global conspiracies.</p>
<p>And I found variations of the “new world order” global conspiracy theory in other topics. For instance, the fourth-largest topic (key words: “video”, “clown”, “fake”, “movie”, “staged”) included comments accusing Israel and other common conspiracy figures of staging the Hamas attacks.</p>
<p>This closely aligns with topics about the Russia-Ukraine war from my broader project. One of the most frequently discussed topics (key words: “Putin”, “war”, “Nazi”, “Ukraine”, “Jewish”) frames Ukraine’s defensive efforts as a sinister conspiracy, usually involving Jewish figures like Ukraine’s president.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-gaza-conflict-when-social-media-fakes-are-rampant-news-verification-is-vital-215496">Israel-Gaza conflict: when social media fakes are rampant, news verification is vital</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How to combat the spread of conspiracy theories</h2>
<p>As noted, the conspiracy-friendly nature of social media, in addition to overlapping “polycrises”, may increase people’s levels of prejudice and radicalisation. </p>
<p>Australian security agencies have already <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/asio-boss-braced-for-spontaneous-violence-as-spy-chiefs-warn-of-heightened-threats-20231017-p5ecx2.html">warned about this risk</a> in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess warned of “spontaneous violence” arising from “language that inflames tension[s]”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/far-right-groups-move-to-messaging-apps-as-tech-companies-crack-down-on-extremist-social-media-153181">Far-right groups move to messaging apps as tech companies crack down on extremist social media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Research has also shown a strong <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-01624-y">relationship between conspiracies and antisemitism</a>, which presents clear risks for Jewish people. Indeed, <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/report/audit-antisemitic-incidents-2022">antisemitism reached unprecedented levels</a> in the United States in 2021 and 2022, possibly due to the series of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/antisemitic-incidents-hit-a-record-high-in-2021-whats-behind-the-rise-in-hate">overlapping crises the world was experiencing at the time</a>. </p>
<p>Countering online conspiracy theories is therefore an important, but <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429452734-2_8/countering-conspiracy-theories-misinformation-p%C3%A9ter-krek%C3%B3">challenging task</a>.
Effective counter-strategies <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s44159-021-00006-y">involve a mix of preventative and responsive approaches</a> targeting both the suppliers and consumers of conspiracies. </p>
<p>This includes increasing our investment in education, reducing social inequality, and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061726/">carefully debunking</a> conspiracy theories when they appear. Awareness of the dynamics and spread of conspiracy narratives is a necessary first step.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215803/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Evans is affiliated with the Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies (TILES).</span></em></p>In my analysis of 12,000 Telegram comments posted after the October 7 Hamas attack, I found commenters talking about the two wars as part of the same antisemitic plots.Nicholas Evans, Lecturer in Policing and Emergency Management, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145322023-10-11T15:15:39Z2023-10-11T15:15:39ZHow morbid curiosity can lead people to conspiracy theories<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/551788/original/file-20231003-21-3lqz5f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C47%2C7951%2C5106&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/albany-new-york-united-states-may-1940561485">Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you like scary movies, true crime podcasts, or violent sports? Research has shown that a major part of the attraction is their appeal to morbid curiosity. </p>
<p>Engaging with frightening media and the emotions it creates in a safe setting can help people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110397">alleviate anxiety and build psychological resilience</a>. However, our recent research, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12682">published in the British Journal of Psychology</a>, shows that a heightened interest in learning about threats can also lead people to be interested in less constructive types of stories: conspiracy theories.</p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/25/qanon-conspiracy-theory-explained-trump-what-is">blood-harvesting Satanists</a> who stealthily run the world to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/qanon-s-capitol-rioters-nashville-bomber-s-lizard-people-theory-ncna1253819">shapeshifting alien lizards</a> invading the world, conspiracy theories often offer alternative explanations of unsettling events. They all centre on a proposal that a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12471">malicious group of people</a> is behind strange or political happenings. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-032420-031329">Conspiracy theories</a> have another thing in common - they go against mainstream explanations and lack concrete evidence. </p>
<p>If the drive to seek out conspiracy theories is motivated by a desire to identify and understand potential threats, then we should expect interest in conspiracy theories to be linked with higher morbid curiosity. </p>
<h2>Testing the link</h2>
<p>To investigate this link <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12682">we ran three studies</a>. Each study had different groups of participants, with a close to even split in genders. The first study tested the question: is morbid curiosity linked with higher belief in conspiracy theories? Using the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111139">morbid curiosity scale</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00279">generic conspiracist beliefs scale</a>, we found that the more morbidly curious people were, the higher their general belief in conspiracy theories. </p>
<p>In psychology, morbid curiosity describes a heightened interest in learning about threatening or dangerous situations. It can be measured using the <a href="https://www.coltanscrivner.com/morbid-curiosity-test">morbid curiosity scale</a>, which gives a rating for general morbid curiosity, and curiosity in four domains: minds of dangerous people, violence, paranormal danger and body violation. Violence is when you’re curious about the action itself (such as a boxing match). Bodily injury is curiosity about the aftermath of violence (like going to a surgical museum). </p>
<p><a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.12682">Younger people</a> tend to be <a href="https://cmpalexgilbey.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/8/7/38878453/horror_film_research.pdf">more morbidly curious</a>, but there doesn’t tend to be a big gender divide, if at all.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Silhouette of a man holding an axe in dark hallway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552519/original/file-20231006-18-uxu2qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552519/original/file-20231006-18-uxu2qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552519/original/file-20231006-18-uxu2qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552519/original/file-20231006-18-uxu2qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552519/original/file-20231006-18-uxu2qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552519/original/file-20231006-18-uxu2qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552519/original/file-20231006-18-uxu2qx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Curious about what happened here?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/silhouette-man-holding-axe-hatchet-arm-1681086475">Milje Ivan/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>For the second study, we tested if the link between morbid curiosity and interest in conspiracy theories was driven by people’s perception of threats. We had people rate how threatening they felt several explanations of events were. The events included both mainstream and conspiratorial explanations of the same thing, such as whether <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-62240071">aeroplane contrails</a> are water vapour, or harmful “chemtrails”. We found that the higher people’s morbid curiosity, the higher they perceived the threat in conspiratorial explanations.</p>
<p>For the final study, we investigated whether morbid curiosity makes people more likely to seek out conspiracy theories as explanations for events. We had people make a choice between a series of paired descriptions, choosing which of the pair they would like to learn more about.</p>
<p>Some were morbid and non-morbid pairs, such as seeing either a photo of a man who killed his girlfriend and ate her, or a photo of a man who saved his friend from drowning. Others were pairs of conspiratorial and mainstream explanations of the same event, such as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-titanic-olympic-ship-switch-086691748061">the Titanic sinking</a> – because it struck an iceberg, versus being deliberately sank in an insurance scam. </p>
<p>We found that the more morbidly curious people were in their choices (such as choosing to view the photo of the man who killed his girlfriend), the more likely they were to be interested in conspiratorial explanations.</p>
<p>Across these three studies, morbidly curious people were more likely to have general conspiracist beliefs, perceive conspiracy theories to be more threatening, and display a stronger interest in learning more about conspiratorial explanations. In all three, the domain of morbid curiosity which was most strongly linked to interest in conspiracy theories was “minds of dangerous people”.</p>
<h2>Minds of dangerous people</h2>
<p>Why minds of dangerous people? Previous research has suggested that, in general, people are particularly attracted to stories <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-why-some-urban-legends-go-viral-28527">about social relationships and threats</a>. But the hostile groups associated with conspiracy theories may have a particularly strong attraction to humans.</p>
<p>Hostile groups of other people have long <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2021.20">been a threat to humans</a>. Group think emerged early in <em>Homo sapiens</em> evolution. While most primate aggression is reactive, the evolution of language in humans around 300,000 years ago allowed our aggression to be more <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1713611115">premeditated and coordinated</a>, as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2021.20">deceptive and conspiratorial</a>. This meant humans needed to be curious about the intentions of potentially dangerous people. Although curiosity can be useful, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.10.001">sensitivity to explanations of threats</a>, for example conspiracy theories, can lead people to assume others have dangerous motives when there are none.</p>
<p>Understanding events in our complex, modern world can be challenging, and may lead us to be alert to potential threats, tapping into our ancient morbid curiosity. Morbid curiosity is not inherently bad, but an increased interest in learning about the dangers presented in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01461672211060965">conspiracy theories can reinforce beliefs</a> that the world is a dangerous place. This can create a feedback loop which only increases anxiety, driving people further down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214532/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The answers lie in early human evolution.Joe Stubbersfield, Lecturer in Psychology, University of WinchesterColtan Scrivner, Behavioral Scientist, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2099902023-09-11T20:09:03Z2023-09-11T20:09:03ZIn Doppelganger, Naomi Klein says the world is broken: conspiracy theorists ‘get the facts wrong but often get the feelings right’<p>Idly googling myself some years ago, I came upon an unusually glowing reference to one of my academic papers. “Masterpiece is an overused word,” the reviewer wrote, “but this Proustian evocation is indeed a masterpiece.”</p>
<p>Something was amiss. My paper was good, but not <em>that</em> good. And there was nothing particularly Proustian about it either. Whatever exquisite sensibility I might possess was well hidden beneath a scholarly armour of logic, evidence and jargon.</p>
<p>Reading further resolved the puzzle. “Nicky Haslam has known everyone from Greta Garbo to Cole Porter to the Royal Family.” Curses! I had been confused with my namesake, the famous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Haslam">British interior designer</a> and scourge of vulgarity, and my paper with one of his books.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World – Naomi Klein (Allen Lane)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The experience of being confused with someone else is probably universal. Names and appearances are fallible markers of personal identity, especially as populations grow and we become exposed to a dizzying multitude of other people.</p>
<p>These confusions are usually trivial and droll, but sometimes they become sinister and destabilising. The idea that we have a double, someone who treads on the toes of our uniqueness, perhaps deliberately, can create deep anxieties and resentments.</p>
<h2>The two Naomis</h2>
<p>Such is the experience of <a href="https://naomiklein.org/">Naomi Klein</a>, Canadian author of a string of anti-capitalist blockbusters. <a href="https://naomiklein.org/no-logo/">No Logo</a> (1999) attacked corporate malfeasance, <a href="https://naomiklein.org/the-shock-doctrine/">The Shock Doctrine</a> (2007) catalogued the exploitation of disasters to roll out neoliberal policies, and 2019’s <a href="https://naomiklein.org/on-fire/">On Fire</a> marked her increasing focus on the climate crisis.</p>
<p>In her new book, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/doppelganger-9780241621318">Doppelganger</a>, Klein makes her experience of being confused with another high-profile author, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Wolf">Naomi Wolf</a>, the stimulus for an extended meditation on the nature of doubles, mirror-worlds, and the political and personal challenges of threatened identities.</p>
<p>Along the way, Klein returns to several of the animating themes of her previous books. Capitalism is the ultimate cause of the dire societal challenges we face, she argues, and people on both sides of the political mirror – right-wing conspiracists and liberal critics alike – fail to recognise it because they are mired in individualist ways of thinking.</p>
<p>The backbone of Klein’s personal story is simple enough. “Other Naomi”, her “big-haired doppelganger”, is the American author of feminist bestseller <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-beauty-myth-9780099595748">The Beauty Myth</a> and was once a celebrated and very public figure on the broad left. Because Wolf was older and more established than Klein, being mistaken for her initially brought a frisson of celebrity. </p>
<p>That all changed when Wolf’s writing veered away from sexual liberation and female empowerment into <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/10/5/6909837/naomi-wolf-isis-ebola-scotland-conspiracy-theories">conspiracies about</a> Ebola, ISIS and (<a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/162702/naomi-wolf-madness-feminist-icon-antivaxxer">most recently</a>) the COVID pandemic, complete with fear mongering about vaccines, mask mandates and impending tyranny. </p>
<p>Her transformation – or derailment, as Klein would have it – has seen her teaming up with far-right media personalities like <a href="https://theconversation.com/stephen-bannons-world-dangerous-minds-in-dangerous-times-100373">Steve Bannon</a> and issuing torrents of misinformation and paranoia.</p>
<p>Appalled at being confused with Wolf, Klein developed a dogged obsession. She followed Wolf’s social media, watched in horror her televised appearances, and pursued her down the rabbit hole – or through the looking glass – of conspiracist thinking. The intensity of Klein’s anti-crush and the tenacity of her pursuit seem to have surprised her, but it delivered insights into the nature of doubles and evil twins. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/seeing-double-the-origins-of-the-evil-twin-in-gothic-horror-and-hollywood-98196">Seeing double: the origins of the 'evil twin' in Gothic horror and Hollywood</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>Doppelganger as ‘shadow self’</h2>
<p>Translated from the German, a doppelganger is literally a “double-goer” or “double-walker”: someone who eerily accompanies us as a kind of shadow-self. Literary doppelgangers tend to be uncanny presences, violent alter egos, wicked impersonators or tormentors who sometimes turn out to be figments of their victim’s madness. </p>
<p>To philosophers and psychoanalysts, doppelgangers illuminate the existential wobbliness that goes with having our sense of unique selfhood undermined. As Golyadkin tells his replica in Dostoevsky’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/threeshortnovels01dost/page/n5/mode/2up">The Double</a>, “Either you or I, but both together we cannot be!”, not long before he is carted off to an asylum while his double blows mocking farewell kisses.</p>
<p>Klein’s response to other Naomi is similarly unsettled and goes beyond merely wishing to correct the record whenever she is misidentified. Klein feels her personal brand has been diluted, while acknowledging the irony of caring about her brand, given her fierce critique of corporate branding in No Logo (1999). </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oeTgLKNb5R0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Naomi Klein fiercely critiqued corporate branding in No Logo, which spawned a documentary.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nearly a quarter of a century later, she argues that personal branding, amplified by the growing desire to curate a unique digital self, entrenches fixed and phony selves and stands in the way of forming alliances with others.</p>
<p>Despite admitting she cares too much about her own brand, Klein deals with Wolf’s encroachment head-on by attacking her new politics. She takes aim at the “Mirror World” that congealed around resistance to vaccine and mask mandates, a new coalition of far-right <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-divided-america-including-the-15-who-are-maga-republicans-splits-on-qanon-racism-and-armed-patrols-at-polling-places-193378">MAGA folk</a> and far-out health and wellness influencers and new-agers, united by a concern with body purity and a fondness for overheated rhetoric. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heather-rose-writes-with-raw-beauty-about-trauma-and-hardcore-spiritual-work-so-why-does-it-leave-me-cold-195425">Heather Rose writes with raw beauty about trauma and 'hardcore spiritual work' – so why does it leave me cold?</a>
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<h2>Calling out conspiracists</h2>
<p>Klein bristles at anti-vaxxers’ claims of a genocidal “hygiene dictatorship” and their appropriation of Holocaust imagery, “as if the Nazi atrocity of <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-biological-state-nazi-racial-hygiene-1933-1939">treating human beings as germs</a> and treating germs as germs was in any way the same thing”. </p>
<p>She also calls out bad-faith appropriation of civil rights discourse by white conspiracists, as when Wolf refers to one of her anti-mask protests as a <a href="https://time.com/3691383/woolworths-sit-in-history/">lunch-counter sit-in</a>, or when vaccination requirements are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-20/experts-insight-into-covid-vaccine-mandate-protests/100707434">described as</a> “medical apartheid”. </p>
<p>Klein also hears less-than-faint echoes of fascism and colonial callousness in arguments the pandemic was nature doing its work of thinning out the weak and infirm – and in the blind eye turned to disproportionate death rates among people of colour.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/mondays-medical-myth-the-mmr-vaccine-causes-autism-3739">Mistaken beliefs</a> linking vaccines and autism were a prequel to this dynamic, Klein suggests. In both cases, a health initiative takes the blame for troubling events: a diagnosis commonly taken as a tragedy in a society “that is very generous with diagnoses and awfully stingy with actual help” and a major economic and social disruption. A righteous hunt for villains ensues, heightened by the primal fear of shadowy, malevolent forces.</p>
<p>What might have driven Wolf into this parallel universe where Twitter, YouTube and Instagram are replaced by the far-right social media alternatives of Gettr, Rumble and Parler? Klein offers an equation: “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-many-types-of-narcissist-are-there-a-psychology-expert-sets-the-record-straight-207610">Narcissism</a> (Grandiosity) + <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-your-social-media-habit-is-probably-not-an-addiction-new-research-158888">Social media addiction</a> + <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-midlife-crisis-a-real-thing-105510">Midlife crisis</a> ÷ Public shaming = Right-wing meltdown”. (Though surely the ÷ should be an ×: shaming exacerbates rather than dampens meltdowns.) </p>
<p>Klein argues Wolf is simply chasing clout and “digital dopamine”, a chase hardly confined to one side of politics.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/white-supremacist-and-far-right-ideology-underpin-anti-vax-movements-172289">White supremacist and far right ideology underpin anti-vax movements</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<h2>Blame on both sides</h2>
<p>Klein’s denunciations of Wolf and her allies are full-throated, but she doesn’t see her own side as blameless. Progressives have abandoned some issues to conservatives and have been overly reactive rather than setting their own agenda. Centrists have failed to deliver action to match their fine words. </p>
<p>Citizens of developed societies have quietly denied the magnitude of our dependence on – and complicity with – global injustice.</p>
<p>What needs to happen, according to Klein, is for people to realise the true source of their problems. Conspiracy theorists are half right: they “get the facts wrong but often get the feelings right”. The feeling others are profiting from human misery and withholding the truth is justified, but the cause is not evil individuals – it’s capitalism itself. </p>
<p>Doppelganger argues that capitalist “<a href="https://theconversation.com/atlas-shrugged-ayn-rands-hero-burns-the-world-down-when-he-doesnt-get-his-way-her-fans-run-the-world-should-we-worry-192510">hyper-individualism</a>” is the root of many of our troubles, and a value held by conspiratorial rightists and liberals alike. It breeds a culture that sees all failings as personal and stands in the way of us uniting to act for the greater good. </p>
<p>The solution, Klein maintains, in a tone that becomes increasingly prophetic as the book progresses, is to think systemically about oppression and inequality, and to decentre ourselves. “There is an intimate relationship between our overinflated selves and our under-cared-for planet,” she writes. </p>
<p>Later chapters take up this challenge, in discussions of settler colonialism, antisemitism and the climate emergency. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-live-in-a-time-of-late-capitalism-but-what-does-that-mean-and-whats-so-late-about-it-191422">We live in a time of 'late capitalism'. But what does that mean? And what's so late about it?</a>
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<h2>Doubling down too much</h2>
<p>Klein’s book is a compelling critique of polarising trends in American and global politics, constructed around a relatable personal narrative. Its anti-capitalist message and sometimes utopian faith in socialist solutions will not be universally embraced, of course. But Klein delivers it with a powerful and passionate voice.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546139/original/file-20230904-15-2ln6ly.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546139/original/file-20230904-15-2ln6ly.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546139/original/file-20230904-15-2ln6ly.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546139/original/file-20230904-15-2ln6ly.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546139/original/file-20230904-15-2ln6ly.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546139/original/file-20230904-15-2ln6ly.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546139/original/file-20230904-15-2ln6ly.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546139/original/file-20230904-15-2ln6ly.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>If Doppelganger has a weak point, it is in its organising idea, which strains under the load it is made to bear. The range of meanings “doppelganger” carries is extravagant, extending far beyond the realm of troublesome namesakes and lookalikes.</p>
<p>Our self-branding online selves are “an internal sort of doppelganger”. The ideal body we aspire to is a doppelganger, and so is the data footprint our online presence leaves behind, our “digital golems”. Thinking is a form of doubling, a “dialogue between me and myself”. </p>
<p>Stereotypes create doppelgangers by projecting images onto individuals: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>race, ethnicity, and gender create dangerous doubles that hover over whole categories of people – Savage. Terrorist. Thief. Whore. Property.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Children are doppelgangers of parents who fail to see them as autonomous beings. We have a second, doppelganger body that represents all the harms we cause others and our planet.</p>
<p>It’s not just individuals that have doppelgangers, but also societies, religions, nations and places. Pluralist society has a fascist doppelganger. Jews and Christians are each other’s doppelgangers. Israel is a doppelganger of antisemitic European nationalisms. New South Wales is the doppelganger of South Wales. Indeed, we all live in a “doppelganger culture. A culture crowded with various forms of doubling.”</p>
<p>Strangely, in all this multiplication of doubling, Klein has little to say about other pressing forms of duplication, such as artificial intelligences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-who-spread-deepfakes-think-their-lies-reveal-a-deeper-truth-119156">deepfakes</a> and identity theft. </p>
<p>Her use of the doppelganger concept is so fruitful, so capable of capturing any kind of similarity and difference, that it becomes almost empty. Doppelganger succeeds despite the occasionally laboured use of this metaphor, rather than because of it.</p>
<p>In the end, Klein finds some almost grudging sympathy for her doppelganger, acknowledging an act of political bravery (a <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/naomi-wolf-argues-that-what-really-is-at-stake-in-gaza-is-israel-s-soul">2014 stand</a> against Palestinian civilian casualties) and recalling an early starstruck meeting. Wolf is not a double of the haunting variety – she has apparently rebuffed Klein’s invitations for a public interview – but she has left her psychic mark and the reader is the better for it. </p>
<p>Ironically, being paired in this engrossing book leaves the two Naomis more conjoined than ever, like two magnets flipped from repulsion to a strange attraction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Haslam receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Naomi Klein uses her frequent confusion with ‘doppelganger’ Naomi Wolf to spark an exploration of doubles, mirror-worlds, and the gulf between left and right.Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2034942023-08-14T12:23:14Z2023-08-14T12:23:14ZWhat is most likely going on in Area 51? A national security historian explains why you won’t find aliens there<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536155/original/file-20230706-19-6ho7f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4608%2C3435&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For decades, what lay at the end of this road was a mysterious secret.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Area_51_Main_Gate.jpg">David James Henry/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>What is most likely going on in Area 51? – Griffin, age 10, South Lyon, Michigan</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>One of the reasons people can never be entirely sure about what is going on at Area 51 is that it is a highly classified secret military facility. It was not until 2013 that the U.S. government even acknowledged the existence and name “Area 51.” </p>
<p>This information came out as part of a broader set of documents released through a <a href="https://www.foia.gov/about.html">Freedom of Information Act</a> request, which is something regular citizens and groups can do to ask the U.S. government to provide details about government activities. In this case, the request made public formerly classified CIA information regarding the historical development and testing of the U-2 spy plane. The information also revealed where it was tested: Area 51!</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Christopher-McKnight-Nichols-2119126815">national security historian</a>, I know there’s a long history of secrets at Area 51. I also know that none of those secrets have anything to do with space aliens.</p>
<h2>The place</h2>
<p>The base commonly referred to as Area 51 is located in a remote area of southern Nevada, roughly 100 miles (161 kilometers) from Las Vegas. It is in the middle of a federally protected area of the U.S. Air Force’s Nevada Test and Training Range, now known as the <a href="https://www.nnss.gov/">Nevada National Security Site</a>, which is inside the larger Nellis Air Force Range. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535094/original/file-20230630-27-ten4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a map showing the city of Las Vegas in the bottom right corner and an inset of the United States in the bottom left corner with Southern Nevada highlighted" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535094/original/file-20230630-27-ten4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535094/original/file-20230630-27-ten4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535094/original/file-20230630-27-ten4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535094/original/file-20230630-27-ten4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535094/original/file-20230630-27-ten4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535094/original/file-20230630-27-ten4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535094/original/file-20230630-27-ten4o0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Area 51, the yellow rectangle in the center of the map, is tucked in the middle of the much larger Nellis Air Force Range.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wfm_area51_map_en.png">DEMIS BV via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Area 51 is the name on maps for the area within the Nevada National Security Site where the government carried out secret operations. The airfield at Area 51 is called Homey Airport, and the overall facility is often referred to as Groom Lake. Groom Lake is a salt flat, or dried-out lake, adjacent to the airport. </p>
<h2>The history</h2>
<p>In the early years of the <a href="https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Cold-War/352982">Cold War</a> between the United States and the Soviet Union, both nations sought new technological developments that might give one country more power than the other. A great amount of information about scientific achievements, such as on rockets or weapons – but also even on ways to grow more food or make fuel more efficient – was kept secret as an issue of national security. </p>
<p>A key part of not fighting another world war was, and still is, developing technologies to see what the other side is doing – that is, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/aerial-surveillance-spy-devices">surveillance technologies</a> that can spy on the enemy. The information gathered by new and improved surveillance technologies about new innovations with planes and weapons was very important to governments. </p>
<p>This meant that both the surveillance information and the technology to get it were closely held national security secrets. Very few people in the governments of the U.S. and Soviet Union knew about the secrets from the 1940s all the way up until the end of the Cold War in 1991. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536156/original/file-20230706-25-x0evon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A single-seat jet aircraft with no markings flies high above the clouds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536156/original/file-20230706-25-x0evon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536156/original/file-20230706-25-x0evon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536156/original/file-20230706-25-x0evon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536156/original/file-20230706-25-x0evon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536156/original/file-20230706-25-x0evon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536156/original/file-20230706-25-x0evon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536156/original/file-20230706-25-x0evon.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The U-2 spy plane was the first of many secrets kept at Area 51.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Usaf.u2.750pix.jpg">U.S. Air Force</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Central to all this was the U.S.’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/U-2">U-2 spy plane</a>. It could fly higher than other airplanes and was made to travel over targets all around the world to take high-resolution photographs and measurements. Area 51 was selected in 1955 to test the U-2 in part because its remote location could help keep the plane secret. </p>
<p>Area 51 became the test site for other secret new aircraft. This included the <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/lockheed-sr-71-blackbird/nasm_A19920072000">A-12</a>, which, like the U-2, was a fast-flying reconnaissance plane. The A-12 was first test flown at Homey Airport in 1962. It had a bulging disc-like center to carry additional fuel. Its shape and shiny titanium body could well have been responsible for some people’s reports about seeing spherical ships, also known as flying saucers. </p>
<p>Another important – and odd-shaped – aircraft first tested at Area 51 was the stealth fighter known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/F-117">F-117</a>. It first flew at Homey Airport in 1981.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536157/original/file-20230706-17-ckb57e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a single-seat odd-shaped jet aircraft flies high above the desert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536157/original/file-20230706-17-ckb57e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536157/original/file-20230706-17-ckb57e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536157/original/file-20230706-17-ckb57e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536157/original/file-20230706-17-ckb57e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536157/original/file-20230706-17-ckb57e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536157/original/file-20230706-17-ckb57e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536157/original/file-20230706-17-ckb57e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The F-117 stealth fighter looks like it could have come from another world but was made right here on Earth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:F-117_Nighthawk_Front.jpg">U.S. Air Force</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Secrets and speculation</h2>
<p>“More Flying Objects Seen in Clark Sky,” read <a href="https://time.com/5627694/area-51-history/">the June 17, 1959, headline</a> in the Reno Evening Gazette newspaper. Reports like this of unidentified flying objects in the 1950s and 1960s fueled controversy and attention for Area 51. This was for three main reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li> Area 51 was highly secret and not publicly accessible. </li>
<li> The area was home to test flights of secret new airplanes that moved fast and in different ways than expected. </li>
<li> The Cold War was an era of political tension, and there were many movies and TV shows about space aliens at the time. </li>
</ol>
<p>When the government does not tell the public the full truth, no matter the reasons, secrets can <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/manhattan-project-library-charlotte-serber-oppenheimer-fbi">lead to wild speculation</a>. Secrecy can leave room for conspiracy theories to develop. </p>
<p>Area 51 remains off-limits to civilian and regular military air traffic, a decade after the government acknowledged its existence. The 68 years of government secrecy has helped to <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-im-searching-for-aliens-and-no-i-wont-be-going-to-area-51-to-look-for-them-120584">amplify suspicions, speculation and conspiracy theories</a>. These <a href="https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1860871_1860876_1861006,00.html">conspiracy theories</a> include crashed alien spaceships, space aliens being experimented on, and even space aliens working at Area 51. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536161/original/file-20230706-29-1fxni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a small crane holds a disk-shaped object in front of a sign for a restaurant that includes an image of a space alien" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536161/original/file-20230706-29-1fxni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536161/original/file-20230706-29-1fxni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536161/original/file-20230706-29-1fxni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536161/original/file-20230706-29-1fxni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536161/original/file-20230706-29-1fxni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536161/original/file-20230706-29-1fxni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536161/original/file-20230706-29-1fxni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Speculation about space aliens at Area 51 has been part of popular culture for more than half a century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/24874528@N04/14222448874/">Airwolfhound/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are much simpler explanations for what witnesses have seen near Area 51. After all, the public now knows about what was being tested at Area 51, and when. For example, as U-2 and A-12 flights increased in the 1950s and 1960s, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/us/politics/ufo-report-us-pentagon.html">so did local sightings of UFOs</a>. As balloons and planes crashed, and secret testing of new technologies as well as captured Soviet equipment continued, <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2013-10-29/area-51-file-secret-aircraft-soviet-migs">so did reports of UFO crashes and landings</a>. </p>
<p>In fact, many UFO sightings <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/15/declassified-the-cias-secret-history-of-area-51/">match almost exactly</a> with dates and times of flights of then-classified experimental aircraft. We also know that prototype drones and more recent versions <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2013/08/16/the-cia-first-tested-drones-in-area-51-because-of-course-they-did/">have been tested at the site</a>.</p>
<p>In the end, there is no reason to think that anything other than earthly technologies have been behind the strange sights and sounds at Area 51.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the descriptions of the name Area 51 and the U2 spy plane’s capabilities.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Nichols does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You’re not allowed to visit the part of Nevada known as Area 51. That’s because it’s a top-secret government facility. But the secrecy has to do with spy planes, not space aliens.Christopher Nichols, Professor of History, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2094132023-08-01T16:20:43Z2023-08-01T16:20:43ZConspiracy theories: how social media can help them spread and even spark violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540217/original/file-20230731-235681-lb9vkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C2560%2C1900&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Former US president Donald Trump's repeaded false statements about the 2020 election having been "stolen" from him eventually led supporters to attack the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DC_Capitol_Storming_IMG_7961.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Conspiracy theory beliefs and (more generally) misinformation may be groundless, but they can have a range of harmful real-world consequences, including spreading lies, undermining trust in media and government institutions and inciting violent or even extremist behaviours.</p>
<p>For example, some conspiracy theories claim that the Covid-19 pandemic <a href="https://theconversation.com/conspiracy-theorists-are-falsely-claiming-that-the-coronavirus-pandemic-is-an-elaborate-hoax-135985">is a hoax</a> or a plot by a secret cabal to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/07/18/rfk-jrs-family-denounces-claim-that-jews-chinese-are-immune-to-Covid-here-are-all-the-other-conspiracies-he-promotes/">control the world population</a>. Such beliefs can lead to a rejection of vital health measures, such as wearing masks or getting vaccinated, and thereby endanger the public. They can also erode the credibility and authority of scientific and political institutions, such as the World Health Organization or the United Nations, and foster distrust and polarisation.</p>
<p>Taken to the extreme, conspiracy theories can even motivate some individuals or groups to engage in violence. False narratives about the 2020 US presidential election having been “stolen” underpinned the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/us/politics/voting-fraud.html">attack on the US Capitol</a>, on 6 January 2021. Another example is the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pizzagate-from-rumor-to-hashtag-to-gunfire-in-dc/2016/12/06/4c7def50-bbd4-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html">“Pizzagate” incident</a> in 2016: falsely believing that a Washington, D.C., pizzeria was a front for a child-sex ring involving high-ranking Democrats, a man from South Carolina drove to the capital, entered the restaurant with an assault-style rifle, and terrified its workers and customers as he searched for evidence that didn’t exist of a crime that never took place.</p>
<p>Far from harmless chatter, these two examples show misinformation and conspiracy theories can pose serious threats to individual and collective safety, social cohesion and even democratic stability.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540222/original/file-20230731-189599-3m4deq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Contrary to all facts, online conspiracy mongers claimed that Comet Ping Pong, a Washington, DC, pizza restaurant, was supposedly the front for a child-sex ring.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comet_Ping_Pong_Pizzagate_2016_01.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Conspiracy-minded communities grow and spread online. Social media, including forums, enable such groups to form and have continuous and repeated access to information that reinforces their beliefs and helps them forge a sense of shared identity. Instead of withering in the face of evidence that contradicts their beliefs, such groups often choose to deepen their commitment and this, in turn, can lead to radicalisation. For many, the thought of giving up their delusions is simply unthinkable – they’re too invested.</p>
<p>This identification is why common strategies to combat misinformation or conspiracy theories, such as fact-checking, debunking or presenting alternative views to such theories, not only fail but can even contribute to pushing these communities to grow even more resolute.</p>
<h2>Why and how conspiracy theories grow</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/isj.12427">recent study</a>, we set out to understand exactly <em>why</em> and <em>how</em> conspiracy theories persist and persevere over time on social media.</p>
<p>We found that social media can help breed a shared identity toward conspiracy theory radicalisation by acting as an echo chamber for such beliefs. The core characteristics of social media play a critical role in building and reinforcing identity echo chambers. For example, they enable individuals to become increasingly committed to such theories through having an easy and persistent access to content that feeds their misconstrued beliefs. Such individuals can imagine themselves to be “real life investigators”, yet scour the Internet searching only for information that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/confirmation-bias">confirms their pre-existing beliefs</a>.</p>
<p>Online networks also enable individuals to replicate conspiracy theories easily by simply sharing or copy/pasting related content. This information is therefore quickly visible to followers or members of a forum which can then be visible through hashtags and via algorithms that are used by some platforms. Our study identifies four key stages in the escalation of such conspiracy beliefs.</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Identity confirmation</strong>: Users consult and view different types of content (via fora, mainstream media and social media) to actively verify and confirm their own views.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Identity affirmation</strong>: Individuals disassociate or pick selectively information from their original sources of information (mentioned above). In the case of “Pizzagate”, conspiracy-minded users took pictures from the Clinton Foundation’s support work in Haiti, created visual materials supporting supposed connections to a sex-trafficking ring, and then posted them on Reddit and 4chan. While obviously altered and taken out of context, the images were widely shared to promote the conspiracy theory.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Identity protection</strong>: Individuals safeguard their “informational environment” by actively seeking to discredit individuals or organisations that present contradictory evidence, for example with antagonistic or negative posts or comments.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Identity enactment</strong>: Individuals seek broader social approval from a more mainstream audience. This can also lead to efforts to recruit more people and call for violent actions, leveraging the community userbase.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>These stages actually constitute a spiralling loop, reinforcing a conspiratorial shared social identity and enabling a potential escalation to radicalisation.</p>
<h2>Prevention, not more information</h2>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/isj.12427">Our findings</a> underline the need to rethink some of the current fact-based approaches, which have not only been proven to be ineffective, but that actually feed conspiratorial beliefs. Instead, we encourage policymakers to focus on prevention and support education.</p>
<p>More than ever, developing media literacy and critical-thinking skills that can help citizens assess the credibility and validity of online information sources has become a critical challenge. Those skills include analysis, synthesis, contrasting evidence and options to spot flaws and inconsistencies, among others.</p>
<p>It is also important to address the underlying social issues that can contribute to the spread of conspiracy theories. The reality of conspiracy-theory communities is that they often represent marginalised populations of our society – their very existence is made possible by social exclusion. Addressing social exclusion and promoting community values may also help combat the spread of conspiracy theories.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209413/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Abdalla Mikhaeil is a member of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).</span></em></p>Conspiracy theories may be baseless, but they can have a range of harmful real-world consequences, including spreading lies, undermining trust in media and government and inciting violence.Christine Abdalla Mikhaeil, Assistant professor in information systems, IÉSEG School of ManagementLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2098402023-07-27T20:35:02Z2023-07-27T20:35:02Z‘The Kerala Story’: How an Indian film ignited violence against Muslims and challenges to interfaith marriage<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-kerala-story-how-an-indian-propaganda-film-ignited-violence-against-muslims-and-challenges-to-interfaith-marriage" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>A controversial low-budget Indian feature film <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65481927"><em>The Kerala Story</em>,</a> about a <a href="https://time.com/6280955/kerala-story-movie-india/">discredited anti-Muslim conspiracy theory</a>, has been causing a political storm, going all the way to India’s Supreme Court. </p>
<p>The movie has helped circulate the idea of <a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-love-jihad-anti-conversion-laws-aim-to-further-oppress-minorities-and-its-working-166746">“love jihad,”</a> a right-wing conspiracy theory that Muslim men are predators and out to marry and steal Hindu women. These ideas date back to the British colonial era and have far-reaching implications for people’s everyday lives. </p>
<p>The trailer claimed <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/4/kerala-story-film-on-alleged-indian-isil-recruits-gets-pushback">32,000 Hindu girls had been converted to Islam by Muslim men with the intent of recruiting them to ISIS.</a> </p>
<p>Once the film came out, citizens <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1048448/amid-row-the-kerala-story-trailer-changed-from-being-the-story-of-32000-women-to-that-of-3-girls">tried to get it banned by sending a petition to the India’s Supreme Court</a>. </p>
<p>“Love jihad” is a conspiracy theory that claims Muslim men are converting Hindu and Christian women to Islam. Allegedly, the men feign love, get the women pregnant and eventually traffic them. The motive? To increase the Muslim population of India, perpetuate fanaticism and ultimately establish an Islamic state. </p>
<p>According to a recent <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/06/29/religious-segregation/">Pew Report</a>, 99 per cent of married people in India share the same religion as their spouse. Muslims account for approximately <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/projected-population-of-muslims-in-2023-to-stand-at-1975-crore-govt-in-lok-sabha/article67106178.ece">14 per cent</a> of India’s population. </p>
<p>There is no such thing as a “love jihad” and an investigation by India’s National Investigation Agency has said there is <a href="https://thewire.in/politics/nia-love-jihad-kerala-hadiya">no evidence of “love jihad” taking place.</a></p>
<h2>Political fallout</h2>
<p>The figure of 32,000 women in the film’s trailer was immediately <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/movie-the-kerala-story-an-attempt-to-destroy-states-communal-harmony-ruling-cpim-opposition-congress/article66792442.ece">challenged by Indian political leaders</a> and also debunked by <a href="https://www.altnews.in/32000-kerala-women-in-isis-misquotes-flawed-math-imaginary-figures-behind-filmmakers-claim/">fact-checkers from the website, Alt News</a>. </p>
<p>The filmmakers agreed to change the number and a new trailer was released. <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1048448/amid-row-the-kerala-story-trailer-changed-from-being-the-story-of-32000-women-to-that-of-3-girls">It removed and replaced “32,000 girls” with “the true stories of three girls.”
</a> </p>
<p>And the movie went forward with its release, which according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/23/india/indian-film-kerala-story-controversy-intl-hnk/index.html">some news reports, was successful at the box office</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A cinema in Bangalore, India. (CP)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Challenges in the Indian Supreme Court</h2>
<p>Some politicians decried the propagandist nature of the movie and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65523873">in West Bengal, it was banned by the government</a>. Politicians there said the film <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1049228/the-kerala-story-contains-manipulated-facts-and-hate-speech-west-bengal-tells-sc">“manipulated facts and contains hate speech in multiple scenes”</a> and they banned the film to <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/mamata-banerjee-announces-ban-on-the-kerala-story-in-west-bengal-film-producer-reacts-101683546969420.html">“avoid violence and hatred.”</a> </p>
<p><a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/prohibition-order-not-tenable-sc-stays-west-bengal-governments-ban-on-the-kerala-story/articleshow/100326856.cms">The Indian Supreme Court</a> lifted the state ban though agreed that a disclaimer on the film was necessary. The disclaimer indicated that the film provides “no authentic data” to support the 32,000 figure and that it presents fictionalized accounts.</p>
<p>Other politicians, including some from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, promoted the film. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65481927">Some of them even offered complimentary tickets or organized free screenings</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://thewire.in/film/kerala-story-prime-minister-modi-misleading-claim">Prime Minister Narendra Modi</a> endorsed the movie, assigning to it a distinct legitimacy. </p>
<h2>Islamophobia from the 19th century</h2>
<p>The idea of “love jihad” is both current and historical with notions coming from Indian and Hindu nationalism as well as 19th-century British colonial narratives. Both streams constructed Muslim men as hypersexual and hyperaggressive. </p>
<p>In the 19th century, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230108196">Hindu scholars and new religious organisations (like Arya Samaj and Hindu Mahasabha)</a> began producing a new Hindu-centric version of Indian history. This history grew in response to British colonialism but <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvzgb88s">at the same time, shared similarities with British colonial ideas</a>.</p>
<p>The British portrayed themselves as just rulers, partly by contrasting themselves with their casting of Muslim kings as hypersexual fanatics. </p>
<p>They pointed to a medieval darkness marked by the lust and tyranny of Muslim rulers. Mughal rulers were <a href="https://dvkperiyar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/We-or-Our-Nationhood-Defined-Shri-M-S-Golwalkar.pdf">portrayed as rapists attacking both Hindu women and “Mother India”</a>. This portrayal included the Muslim <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/5969?language=en">Prophet Muhammad who was portrayed in some places as sexually perverse</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.448955">These ideas became part of the curriculum</a> in certain Indian states and elite Hindu scholars, educated at colonial schools, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvzgb88s">perpetuated these narratives in their writing</a>. And the idea of a type of “love jihad” became part of the discourse created through pamphlets, novels, newspapers and magazines — especially in North India.</p>
<p>By the late 19th century, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230108196">India was constructed around Hindu heterosexual relationships and family values</a> in opposition to Muslim sexual deviance and rampant Muslim sexuality.</p>
<p>In 1923, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230108196">Madan Mohan Malaviya, the president of the Hindu Mahasabha</a> said in a speech, “hardly any day passes without our noticing a case or two of kidnapping of Hindu women and children by not only Muslim <em>badmashes</em> (rogues) and <em>goondas</em> (hooligans), but also men of standing and means.” </p>
<h2>Challenges to interfaith marriage</h2>
<p>Today, it’s not just <em>The Kerala Story</em> that has circulated the “love jihad” myth. Reportage in Hindu nationalist media continues to make headlines.</p>
<p><em>Organiser</em>, a magazine run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a network of Hindu nationalist organizations, recently reported that <a href="https://organiser.org/2023/06/28/181109/bharat/madhya-pradesh-three-cases-of-love-jihad-following-same-pattern-like-film-the-kerala-story-reported-in-a-month/">three cases of love jihad following the same pattern as those in ‘The Kerala Story’ were reported in a month</a>.</p>
<p>Love jihad’s centrality to Hindu nationalist politics has led to specifically stringent laws <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/12/1068">focused heavily on sexuality and marriage</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-love-jihad-anti-conversion-laws-aim-to-further-oppress-minorities-and-its-working-166746">India’s 'love jihad' anti-conversion laws aim to further oppress minorities, and it's working</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/07/03/love-jihad-law-india/">Hindu vigilantes, in partnership with the police,</a> launch missions to separate interfaith couples. Muslim men have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/21/they-cut-him-into-pieces-indias-love-jihad-conspiracy-theory-turns-lethal">brutalized, killed, forced into hiding and incarcerated</a> using <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2018298841/">historic anti-conversion laws</a>. </p>
<p>One response to the chatter about “love jihad,” is an Instagram channel called <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/10/countering-love-jihad-by-celebrating-indian-interfaith-couples">India Love Project</a> launched to celebrate stories of interfaith love and marriages. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This photo of a newlywed couple is from the Instagram account called the India Love Project. The groom is Muslim and the bride is Hindu-Punjabi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CptlucmPFgr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3Dhttps://www.instagram.com/p/CptlucmPFgr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D">(India Love Project)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hopefully, such efforts continue to address Islamophobia and broaden to include a larger public discourse looking at transnational Islamophobic interlinkages, both past and present.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209840/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wajiha Mehdi receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Public Scholars Initiative UBC, International Development Research Centre Canada and the University of British Columbia</span></em></p>A controversial low-budget Indian feature film about a discredited anti-Muslim conspiracy theory has been causing a political storm, going all the way to India’s Supreme Court.Wajiha Mehdi, PhD Candidate, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2073002023-07-17T12:26:40Z2023-07-17T12:26:40ZWhat do astronomers say about Moon landing deniers? Batting down the conspiracy theory with an assist from the 1969 Miracle Mets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534471/original/file-20230628-29982-y7rpar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4960%2C3890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Astronaut Buzz Aldrin planted the U.S. flag on the Moon on July 20, 1969.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/buzz-aldrin-on-the-moon-with-the-american-flag-1969-artist-news-photo/1268487289?adppopup=true">Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">curiouskidsus@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>What do astronomers have to say about the Moon landing conspiracy theories? – Prisha M., age 14, Mumbai, India</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>Back in 1969 – more than a half-century ago – Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html">landed on the Moon</a>.</p>
<p>At least that’s what most people think. </p>
<p>But a few still insist that humans <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/959480/belief-that-the-moon-landing-was-faked/">did not land on the Moon</a>. </p>
<p>Should you believe them? How can you know that astronauts really did go to the Moon?</p>
<p>Let’s address this question by putting it side by side with another stunning event of the same year: the New York Mets’ <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/399131585702322525/">shocking win in baseball’s World Series</a>. They beat the Baltimore Orioles, four games to one.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535421/original/file-20230703-268876-4m7dmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fans race around a baseball field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535421/original/file-20230703-268876-4m7dmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535421/original/file-20230703-268876-4m7dmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535421/original/file-20230703-268876-4m7dmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535421/original/file-20230703-268876-4m7dmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535421/original/file-20230703-268876-4m7dmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535421/original/file-20230703-268876-4m7dmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535421/original/file-20230703-268876-4m7dmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jubilant fans take over the field after the Mets win the 1969 World Series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/world-series-champion-new-york-mets-dash-for-safety-of-the-news-photo/515291486?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Another miracle</h2>
<p>But how do you know that? How can you be sure? After all, up until 1969, the Mets <a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/news/the-1969-mets-the-greatest-cinderella-story-in-baseball-history">were a terrible team</a>. They won the fewest games in the major leagues in 1967, and the third-fewest in 1968. It seems very unlikely they could have won the championship the very next year.</p>
<p>What if someone said that it didn’t happen? That the Mets instead lost the series to the Orioles? That the claim the Mets won is just a hoax, a canard, a fake story?</p>
<p>Is it possible to prove they’re wrong?</p>
<h2>Seen on TV</h2>
<p>First: Millions of Americans watched the World Series on television – approximately 11 million to 17 million viewers per game, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Series_television_ratings">according to Nielsen ratings</a>. Many of those people are still alive today and remember seeing the Mets win. </p>
<p>Why would all of them lie? That doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>Now consider this: More than 600 million people around the world <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/business/media/apollo-11-television-media.html">watched the Moon landing on TV</a>. </p>
<h2>Seen at stadiums</h2>
<p>But a skeptic might say “so what” – maybe the entire World Series was somehow faked, re-created in a TV studio. </p>
<p>Yet ticket records document more than 250,000 people <a href="https://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1969ws.shtml">saw the games in person</a>. Along with them were hundreds of TV, radio and newspaper reporters and support personnel who also witnessed the action directly. Many of them are still alive today, and every one of them agrees that the Mets won.</p>
<p>Why would all of them lie? That doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>Now consider this: More than 400,000 people <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190617-apollo-in-50-numbers-the-workers#:%7E">worked on the Apollo program</a> – scientists, engineers, researchers and support staff along with the astronauts. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gg5Ncc9GODY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Live from the Moon – July 20, 1969.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Even the opposition agreed</h2>
<p>So a skeptic might claim the New York media, or some other corporate entity, set up fake broadcasts and fake fans for some nefarious purpose. And the reason no one talks – well, maybe everyone was paid off. </p>
<p>Although the New York newspapers and TV stations may have wanted the Mets to win, the Baltimore reporters and broadcasters, and especially the players and fans, did not. </p>
<p>Yet all of them – even the players – admitted their team had lost. If the Series was a sham, why didn’t a single one of them who opposed the Mets expose the fraud?</p>
<p>Why would all of them lie? That doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>Now consider this: The Soviet Union was the United States’ rival in the Space Race – it wanted to be the first on the Moon. But the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ15AMgZkqk">Soviet government told its citizens</a> on radio and television and <a href="https://www.osaarchivum.org/blog/men-walk-on-the-moon">in newspaper articles</a> in July 1969 that U.S. astronauts had landed on the Moon. Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny even sent a telegram to U.S. President Richard Nixon <a href="https://history.nasa.gov/AAchronologies/1969.pdf">offering his congratulations</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JmjuuQQX3Z4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">See for yourself: Did the 1969 Mets really do it?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Score cards and Moon rocks</h2>
<p>At this point, a skeptic might change tactics and say all of this evidence is just hearsay, and you can’t trust people. </p>
<p>But consider the hard physical objects preserved from the Series. At the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, you can find <a href="http://exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/ws_programs/ws_program_1969_game_5.htm">score cards</a> and <a href="http://exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/ws_programs/images/1969_mets_cover.htm">programs</a> from the games, as well as the glove worn by <a href="https://www.mlb.com/news/mets-memorabilia-at-hall-of-fame">center fielder Tommie Agee</a>. All the objects can be dated to the year 1969. </p>
<p>Certainly, this is slightly weaker evidence; after all, it’s possible to produce fake printed items. And even if scientists found traces of Tommie Agee’s DNA in the glove, it would prove only that he wore it at some point that year, not necessarily that the Mets had won the Series.</p>
<p>But the physical evidence for the Moon landings cannot be faked so easily. First, the Moon rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts <a href="https://www.spaceanswers.com/q-and-a/how-different-is-moon-rock-and-earth-rock/">are unlike rocks on Earth</a>. And they are similar to lunar samples returned by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JE007409">Soviet</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2022.06.037">Chinese</a> spacecraft. Scientists from many countries have examined these rocks and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2021.12.013">continue</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13795">study</a> them <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2020.11.002">today</a>.</p>
<p>Second, the Apollo 11 astronauts <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/laser-beams-reflected-between-earth-and-moon-boost-science">placed mirrors on the Moon</a> that have been detected for decades by telescopes in the U.S., France, Germany, South Africa and Australia. Anyone with a few million dollars can build a telescope big enough to see them.</p>
<p>There’s even more evidence we haven’t mentioned: the <a href="https://moon.nasa.gov/exploration/moon-missions/">dozens of unmanned probes</a> sent to the Moon by both the U.S. and the USSR before Apollo 11, which built up the technology needed for the landings; the large budget devoted to the project – NASA <a href="https://www.planetary.org/space-policy/cost-of-apollo">spent about US$49 billion</a> on lunar missions between 1960 and 1973; and the universal agreement by scientific and academic institutions around the world for the past half-century that astronauts <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90375425/apollo-11-landed-moon-how-you-can-be-sure-sorry-conspiracy">really did land on the Moon</a>. </p>
<p>So why do some people continue to insist that humans never reached the Moon? Maybe they like to imagine they have “secret knowledge.” It makes them feel they’re just a bit smarter than everyone else. After all, a few <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/flat-earthers-what-they-believe-and-why/">still incorrectly claim the Earth is flat</a>.</p>
<p>Now – what do you think? Did the Baltimore Orioles actually win the World Series in 1969? Has a worldwide conspiracy prevented millions of witnesses from coming forward to expose the hoax? Have citizens of the United States suffered from an episode of mass delusion? </p>
<p>Or did the Miracle Mets actually win the World Series in 1969?</p>
<p>The evidence – and your logic and common sense – will answer the question for you.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Richmond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some people incorrectly say the Moon landings didn’t happen. But the evidence – and logic – isn’t on their side.Michael Richmond, Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Rochester Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2084032023-07-17T12:26:25Z2023-07-17T12:26:25ZWhy people tend to believe UFOs are extraterrestrial<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536674/original/file-20230710-27-qxl8co.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=63%2C0%2C7071%2C4657&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Photos claiming to be UFO evidence are often doctored or otherwise ambiguous. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/in-flight-above-urban-park-royalty-free-image/BD0513-001?phrase=ufos&adppopup=true">Ray Massey/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of us still call them UFOs – unidentified flying objects. NASA <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-announces-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-study-team-members/">recently adopted</a> the term “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAP. Either way, every few years popular claims resurface that these things are not of our world, or that the <a href="https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/">U.S. government has some stored away</a>.</p>
<p>I’m <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZEQu09wAAAAJ&hl=en">a sociologist</a> who focuses on the interplay between individuals and groups, especially concerning shared beliefs and misconceptions. As for why UFOs and their alleged occupants enthrall the public, I’ve found that normal human perceptual and social processes explain UFO buzz as much as anything up in the sky. </p>
<h2>Historical context</h2>
<p>Like political scandals and high-waisted jeans, UFOs trend in and out of collective awareness but never fully disappear. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ufos-exist-americans-national-geographic-survey/story?id=16661311">Thirty years of polling</a> find that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/06/30/most-americans-believe-in-intelligent-life-beyond-earth-few-see-ufos-as-a-major-national-security-threat/">25%-50% of surveyed Americans</a> believe at least some UFOs are alien spacecraft. Today in the U.S., over <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/353420/larger-minority-says-ufos-alien-spacecraft.aspx">100 million adults</a> think our galactic neighbors pay us visits.</p>
<p>It wasn’t always so. Linking objects in the sky with visiting extraterrestrials has risen in popularity only in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-flying-boats-to-secret-soviet-weapons-to-alien-visitors-a-brief-cultural-history-of-ufos-164128">past 75 years</a>. Some of this is probably market-driven. Early UFO stories boosted newspaper and magazine sales, and today they are reliable <a href="https://kipac.stanford.edu/highlights/aliens-could-be-out-there-dont-trust-clickbait">clickbait</a> online. </p>
<p>In 1980, a popular book called “<a href="https://archive.org/details/roswellincident00berl">The Roswell Incident</a>” by Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore described an alleged flying saucer crash and government cover-up 33 years prior near Roswell, New Mexico. The only evidence ever to emerge from this story was a small string of downed weather balloons. Nevertheless, the book coincided with a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/07/08/roswell-flying-saucer-ufo/">resurgence of interest</a> in UFOs. From there, a steady stream of UFO-themed <a href="https://tvshowpilot.com/fun-posts/best-alien-tv-shows/">TV shows</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls041828914/">films</a>, and <a href="https://screenrant.com/netflix-ufo-documentaries-best-greatest/">pseudo-documentaries</a> has fueled public interest. Perhaps inevitably, <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12893/conspiracy">conspiracy theories</a> about government cover-ups have risen in parallel.</p>
<p>Some UFO cases inevitably remain unresolved. But despite <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-pentagon-interested-in-ufos-116714">the growing interest</a>, multiple <a href="https://www.af.mil/The-Roswell-Report/">investigations</a> have found <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/08/11/stop-ufo-mania-no-evidence-of-aliens/">no evidence</a> that UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin – other than the occasional meteor or misidentification of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/watchtheskies/03may_maximumvenus.html">Venus</a>. </p>
<p>But the U.S. Navy’s 2017 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html">Gimbal video</a> continues to appear in the media. It shows strange <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TumprpOwHY&ab_channel=ABCNews">objects filmed by fighter jets</a>, often interpreted as evidence of alien spacecraft. And in June 2023, an otherwise credible Air Force veteran and former intelligence officer made the <a href="https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/">stunning claim</a> that the U.S. government is storing numerous downed alien spacecraft and their dead occupants. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2TumprpOwHY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">UFO videos released by the U.S. Navy, often taken as evidence of alien spaceships.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Human factors contributing to UFO beliefs</h2>
<p>Only a small percentage of UFO believers are <a href="https://news.gallup.com/vault/190592/gallup-vault-eyewitnesses-flying-saucers.aspx">eyewitnesses</a>. The rest base their opinions on eerie images and videos strewn across both social media and traditional mass media. There are astronomical and biological reasons to be <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/skeptic-encyclopedia-of-pseudoscience-2-volumes-9781576076538/">skeptical</a> of UFO claims. But less often discussed are the psychological and social factors that bring them to the popular forefront.</p>
<p>Many people would love to know whether or not <a href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1675/life-in-the-universe-what-are-the-odds/">we’re alone in the universe</a>. But so far, the evidence on UFO origins is ambiguous at best. Being <a href="https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/ambiguity-effect">averse to ambiguity</a>, people want answers. However, being highly motivated to find those answers can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.480">bias judgments</a>. People are more likely to accept weak evidence or fall prey to optical illusions if they support preexisting beliefs. </p>
<p>For example, in the 2017 Navy video, the UFO appears as a cylindrical aircraft moving rapidly over the background, rotating and darting in a manner unlike any terrestrial machine. <a href="https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/gimbal-video-genuine-ufo-or-camera-artifact/">Science writer Mick West’s analysis</a> challenged this interpretation using data displayed on the tracking screen and some basic geometry. He explained how the movements attributed to the blurry UFO are an illusion. They stem from the plane’s trajectory relative to the object, the quick adjustments of the belly-mounted camera, and misperceptions based on our tendency to assume cameras and backgrounds are stationary.</p>
<p>West found the UFO’s flight characteristics were more like a bird’s or <a href="https://amuedge.com/beyond-ufos-what-are-navy-pilots-seeing-in-the-skies/">a weather balloon’s</a> than an acrobatic interstellar spacecraft. But the illusion is compelling, especially with the Navy’s still deeming the object unidentified.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvhMMhW-JN0&t=249s&ab_channel=MickWest">West also addressed</a> the former intelligence officer’s <a href="https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-retrieved-non-human-craft/">claim that the U.S. government possesses crashed UFOs</a> and dead aliens. He emphasized caution, given the whistleblower’s only evidence was that people he trusted told him they’d seen the alien artifacts. West noted we’ve <a href="https://bigthink.com/13-8/military-whistleblowers-ufos-70-years/">heard this sort of thing before</a>, along with promises that the proof will soon be revealed. But it never comes.</p>
<p>Anyone, including pilots and intelligence officers, can be socially influenced to see things that aren’t there. Research shows that hearing from others who claim to have seen something extraordinary is enough to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/sop.2001.44.1.21">induce similar judgments</a>. The effect is heightened when the influencers are numerous or higher in status. Even recognized experts aren’t immune from <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-65771398">misjudging unfamiliar images</a> obtained under unusual conditions.</p>
<h2>Group factors contributing to UFO beliefs</h2>
<p>“Pics or it didn’t happen” is a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/26/pics-or-it-didnt-happen-mantra-instagram-era-facebook-twitter">popular expression</a> on social media. True to form, users are posting countless shaky images and videos of UFOs. Usually they’re nondescript lights in the sky captured on cellphone cameras. But they can <a href="https://www.feedough.com/why-things-go-viral/">go viral on social media</a> and reach millions of users. With no higher authority or organization propelling the content, social scientists call this a bottom-up <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.265">social diffusion</a> process.</p>
<p>In contrast, top-down diffusion occurs when information emanates from centralized agents or organizations. In the case of UFOs, sources have included social institutions like <a href="https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104590/unidentified-flying-objects-and-air-force-project-blue-book/">the military</a>, individuals with large public platforms like <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/4062715-us-has-downplayed-the-number-of-ufo-sightings-senator-hawley/">U.S. senators</a>, and major media outlets like <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ufo-military-intelligence-60-minutes-2021-08-29/">CBS</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two circle-and-line graphics, the left showing several circles connected to one another with lines, while the right shows one circle at the top connecting several other circles" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=284&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536695/original/file-20230710-15-14kf6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The left image shows bottom-up diffusion, in which information spreads from person to person. The right shows top-down, in which information spreads from one authority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Barry Markovsky</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Amateur organizations also promote active personal involvement for many thousands of members, <a href="https://mufon.com/">the Mutual UFO Network</a> being among the oldest and largest. But as Sharon A. Hill points out in her book “<a href="https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/scientifical-americans/">Scientifical Americans</a>,” these groups apply questionable standards, spread misinformation and garner little respect within mainstream scientific communities.</p>
<p>Top-down and bottom-up <a href="https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v3i2.21">diffusion processes</a> can combine into <a href="https://qz.com/1714598/information-feedback-loops-make-social-media-more-dangerous">self-reinforcing loops</a>. Mass media spreads UFO content and piques worldwide interest in UFOs. More people aim their cameras at the skies, creating more opportunities to capture and share odd-looking content. Poorly documented UFO pics and videos spread on social media, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-the-monday-edition-1.6065136/why-this-ufo-video-analyst-doesn-t-buy-the-hype-around-the-pentagon-report-1.6065138">leading media outlets</a> to grab and republish the most intriguing. Whistleblowers emerge periodically, fanning the flames with claims of secret evidence.</p>
<p>Despite the hoopla, nothing ever comes of it.</p>
<p>For a <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-we-alone-the-question-is-worthy-of-serious-scientific-study-98843">scientist familiar with the issues</a>, skepticism that UFOs carry alien beings is wholly separate from the <a href="https://www.space.com/25219-drake-equation.html">prospect of intelligent life</a> elsewhere in the universe. Scientists engaged in the <a href="https://www.seti.org/">search for extraterrestrial intelligence</a> have a number of ongoing research projects designed to detect signs of extraterrestrial life. If intelligent life is out there, they’ll likely be the first to know. </p>
<p>As astronomer <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Contact/Carl-Sagan/9781501197987">Carl Sagan wrote</a>, “The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Markovsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While UFO videos might seem compelling, they’re rarely backed up with evidence. A sociologist explains why claims of alien life gain traction through both social and mass media every few years.Barry Markovsky, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.