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Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?
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There are Social motives for believing in conspiracy theories

Conspiracy Theories can serve as a social / psychological bond for groups that feel threatened or disadvantaged.
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The Argument

Members of groups who have objectively low (vs. high) status because of their ethnicity or income are more likely to endorse conspiracy theories. The prevalence of anti-semitic conspiracy theories in certain BAME communities is evidence of this (eg. Nick Cannon's attack on the Jewish community, for which he subsequently apologised [1]) People on the losing (vs. winning) side of political processes also appear more likely to believe conspiracy theories. This type of justification of Conspiracy Theory is about shielding the in-group from blame, claiming it is the moral and competent one, but has been sabotaged by others. This type of conspiracy ideation is also particularly appealing to groups who find the positive image of their self or in-group threatened.

Counter arguments

Premises

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-07-17/nick-cannon-apology-anti-semitic-comments-harm
This page was last edited on Friday, 24 Jul 2020 at 11:01 UTC

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