Research Paper TopicPresentation

Chris Chia-hao Chianglin | Jun. 14

Introduction

TOPIC:

Why Do People Believe in Conspiracies?

What is “conspiracy”?

Conspiracy = Conspiracy theory

Hoax

MythLie

What is “conspiracy”?

According to Wikipedia:

“A conspiracy theory explains a historical or current event as a

result of a secret plot by exceptionally powerful and

cunning conspirators to achieve a malevolent end.”

Malevolent: having or showing a desire to harm other people

What is “conspiracy”?

Michael Shermer

With a documentary filmmaker

Exposing the conspiracy behind 9/11

What is “conspiracy”? M: You mean the conspiracy by Osama

bin Laden and al Qaeda to attack the United States?

DF: That’s what they want you to believe. M: Who is they? DF: But didn’t Osama and some members

of al Qaeda not only say they did it? M: They gloated about what a glorious

triumph it was?

What is “conspiracy”?

DF: Oh, you’re talking about that video of Osama.

M: That was faked by the CIA and leaked to the American press to mislead us. There has been a disinformation campaign going on ever since 9/11.

What is “conspiracy”?

Disinformation:

false information that is given deliberately, esp. by government organizations

Relevant to the audience

Examples:

JFK assassination Moon landing SARS 3-19 shooting incident …

Relevant to the audience

By realizing how do we/people believe in conspiracies, we may be more conscious, before we choose to believe in conspiracies, of what is going on in our mind and then make judgments.

Research Question

QUESTION:

Why Do People Believe in Conspiracies?

Supporting information

Conspiracy theories connect the dots of random events into meaningful patterns with intentional agency.

PatternicityAgenticity

Supporting information

Patternicity the tendency to find meaningful patterns in random noise

Agenticity the bent to believe the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents

Supporting information

Add to those propensities the confirmation bias and the hindsight bias, and we have the foundation for conspiratorial cognition.

Confirmation biasHindsight bias

↓A tendency to a particular kind of behavior

Supporting information

Confirmation bias seeks and finds confirmatory evidence for what we already believe

Hindsight bias tailors after-the-fact explanations to what we already know happened

Tailor: make or adapt sth for a particular purpose.

Conclusion

“When something momentous happens, EVERYTHING leading up to and away from the events seems momentous, too.”

References

Conspiracy theory. (2011, June 10). Retrieved from the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory#Study_of_conspiracism

Shermer, Michael. "Why People Believe in Conspiracies." Scientific American. Scientific American, Inc., 10 Sep. 2009. Web. 31 May 2011.

The End