Just for laughs...

ah, but for that one, I've got something better...

 

"Far too much has been written about great men, not nearly enough about morons. It didn't seem right."

I have tried to figure out why my uncle believes almost every conspiracy theory he is told.

I believe whenever humans consistently something that seems to make no sense, evolutionary psychology can explain it.

It takes a very long time for evolution to catch up. We've had civilization for less than 10,000 years. We've had industrialization for less than 250 years. Our brains are hard wired to be hunter gathers.

Hunter gather hears a strange noise at night. 9,999 out of 10,000 the sound is the wind or something harmless. 1 time out of a 10,000 it's a hungry tiger.

Most of the ancient paleolithic humans that said "It's probably just the wind" got eaten by tigers. They didn't live to pass on their genes. The paranoid nuts who acted like it was a tiger every time lived long enough to pass on their genes.

For many centuries, the various creatures that eat humans have been killed or driven back but our instincts still tell us that a tiger is out to eat us.

This is why every culture on earth has stories about monsters that go bump in the night.

The renaissance started shining a light in the darkness proving that monsters did not lurk in the shadows but humanity's instincts still said that strange sound was a tiger.

The industrial revolution led to writers like Jules Vern and Orson Wells and HP Lovecraft. Perhaps there are hungry tigers in outer space or the depths of the sea. Perhaps they wait outside of time. Science has shined a light in space and the deep sea. We don't know for sure what's out there but it doesn't look like monsters are there.

Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, brought forth the idea that maybe the metaphorical tigers wear a facsmile of the human form.

As science makes these metaphorical tigers seem less likely we are still looking for new tigers. This is where conspiracy theories come in.

A flying dragon is a mythical monster that is kind of like a hawk or eagle, king of like a snake or crocodile, and kind of like a cat or wolf.

It's an amalgamation of the predators that threatened our neolithic ancestors.

What threatens us now? Corrupt ossified governments that lie to us, ruthless amoral corporate interests that exploit us, and that Other tribe that might make war on us (or at least take our jobs). A conspiracy involves corrupt governments, evil corporate and the ever present Other.

In a way a conspiracy theory is like a modern dragon. Or maybe like a modern vampire story because the monsters wear a human face.


I think this is the number one reason why people cling to conspiracy theorist. I'm not sure what the number two and three, but my working theory is that 2) humans are tribal and 3) individuality can be perverted.

Our neolithic ancestors lived in tribes and we instinctively cling to tribes in 2021 even though society as a whole is not nearly as innately tribal as it used to be. The United States has roughly 300 million people in it and probably at least 300,000 tribes. Heck Lustria-Online is a tribe.

Anyway, a bunch of people who believe the same conspiracy theory are part of a tribe. Social bonds give people an incentive to not question the conspiracy. This also creates an echo chamber to reinforce their beliefs.

3) is somewhat contradictory to tribalism but humans can have contradictory impulses. That's why conspiracy theories are more common in the West where individuality is highly encouraged. If you know something everyone else is ignorant about you can be an individual and be the smartest person in the room.


Unfortunately, almost none of this insight gives me or anyone else a surefire way to convert a conspiracy theorist.

One theory is maybe appeals to tribalism or emotion. I read an op ed about a climatologists whose own father did not believe in global warming. She said she tried to convince him with facts and figures and it never worked, so she tried the tack, "If global warming is wrong, than your daughter is wrong" and supposedly that worked.

That said, neither me nor my father could get through to my conspiracy loving uncle via emotional or family appeals.

 

Good analysis @Scalenex , i overall agree on the deep reasons why conspiracies theorists exist and people follow them... however, the outcome this round is different:

if the flu (or the polio, or septicemia, or whatever) kills you, you don't pass your genes. Paranoia it's not the safe route, here.

Now, we could debate that, without vaccines, without antibiotics, without medicines, your antibodies would grow stronger.
Well, of course who can survive without modern medicine, is because he's gifted with a powerful immune system. But we are past that. We come from generations that have enjoyed vaccines and antibiotics, and most of all a healthy enviroment with potable water and sewers.
Actually in the world there is a A LOT of people that if you put them in the world of 1800, they would die within the year.

Basically: