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jlf1961 -> RE: There was a plane! (8/20/2011 4:51:29 PM)
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Empire of Conspiracy by Tim Melley explores some of the psychological aspects of believing in conspiracy theories. I have not had a chance to read the book, however it seems to be referenced in a few articles dealing with the psychological drive to believe in conspiracy theories.
Melley proposes that conspiracy thinking arises from a combination of two factors, when someone: 1) holds strong individualist values and 2) lacks a sense of control. The first attribute refers to people who care deeply about an individual's right to make their own choices and direct their own lives without interference or obligations to a larger system (like the government). But combine this with a sense of powerlessness in one's own life, and you get what Melley calls agency panic, "intense anxiety about an apparent loss of autonomy" to outside forces or regulators.http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-narcissus-in-all-us/200809/paranoia-911-and-the-roots-conspiracy-theories
According to political scientist Michael Barkun, the appeal of conspiracism is threefold: First, conspiracy theories claim to explain what mainstream narratives cannot. They appear to make sense out of a world that is otherwise confusing. Second, they do so in an appealingly simple way, by dividing the world sharply between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. They trace all evil back to a single source, the conspirators and their agents. Third, conspiracy theories are often presented as special, secret knowledge unknown or unappreciated by others. For conspiracy theorists, the masses are a brainwashed herd, while the conspiracy theorists in the know can congratulate themselves on penetrating the plotters' deceptions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory
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