Recently Year 12 Psychology students were privileged to attend the ‘Psychology in action’ conference in Westminster that involved a series of lectures. This article will cover the lecture titles ‘The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories’.

There are three questions this lecture aimed to answer: What is a conspiracy theory? What is the harm? Why do people believe?

Firstly, what is a conspiracy theory? Dr Daniel Jolley described them as ‘attempts to explain the ultimate cause of events as secret plots by powerful forces’. For example, the idea that the moon landings were fake or the idea that COVID 19 was a ‘hoax’. Dr Jolley described the three ingredients for a conspiracy theory: Who? A conspiracy theory needs a protagonist, what? A conspiracy theory needs an action and why? A conspiracy theory needs a motive. For example, ‘The British government is outing secret messaged in movies to deceive the public’. This is considered a conspiracy theory because it included a protagonist, the British government, it includes an action, putting secret messaged in movies and it includes a motive, to deceive the public.

Secondly, Dr Jolley answered why people believe in conspiracy theories. He told us that believing in conspiracy theories fill our desire to be in control, feel secure and feel connected. Perhaps believing is a result of experience and/or enviroment. There may be personality bias, such as people believing that big events must be explained by equally big. People have a tendency to see things in patterns when in fact things are just coincident.

Finally, Dr Jolley informed us the harms of believing in conspiracy theories, telling us that they influence citizens and the society they live in in an unhealthy manor. For example, conspiracy theories revolving around COVID 19 have caused people to become less likely to be vaccinated. Believing in conspiracy theories can increase non-normative behaviours such as refusal to pay tax.

Dr Jolley listed several interventions to protect people from conspiracy theories. Firstly, inoculation, giving the facts upfront. Promoting analytical thinking can reduce belief in conspiracy theories, inducing feelings of control can reduce belief and correcting inaccurate social norms.

The key takeaways from this talk were:

• Conspiracy theories are a product of normal everyday processes
• They are potentially harmful
• There is current research showing tools can combat negative effects

 

by Matt E