GotSteel
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Joined: 2/19/2008
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quote:
ORIGINAL: lilmissdefiant
My Owner and I got into a rather heated debate last night about the NASA Moon-landing, he claims that the footage from it was faked therefore the whole moon-landing never happened, he did concede that man has set foot on the moon, it just didn't happen the way we saw it.
This most likely has nothing to do with his IQ or sanity. What's going on is that the rational, logical portion of his mind is not what's running the show when it comes to this issue.
quote:
ORIGINAL: http://kent.academia.edu/RobbieSutton/Papers/1275313/Dead_and_alive_Beliefs_in_contradictory_conspiracy_theories
Conspiracy theories can form a monological belief system: a self-sustaining worldviewcomprised of a network of mutually supportive beliefs. The present research shows that evenendorsement of mutually incompatible conspiracy theories are positively correlated. In Study 1(
n
= 137), the more participants believed that Princess Diana faked her own death, the more they believed that she was murdered. In Study 2 (
n
= 102), the more participants believed that OsamaBin Laden was already dead when U.S. special forces raided his compound in Pakistan, the morethey believed he is still alive. Hierarchical regression models showed that mutually incompatibleconspiracy theories are positively associated because both are associated with the view that theauthorities are engaged in a cover-up (Study 2). The monological nature of conspiracy belief appears to be driven not by conspiracy theories directly supporting one another, but by broader beliefs supporting conspiracy theories in general.
The rest of us look at this sort of thinking and say that's just nuts and don't get me wrong the thought process is all kinds of messed up. But not because conspiracy theorists as a percentage are more stupid or crazy than the rest of us.
All the explanations that I've seen by psychologists talk about this stuff in terms of emotional motivations.
quote:
ORIGINAL: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-narcissus-in-all-us/200809/paranoia-and-the-roots-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.
When fervent individualists feel that they cannot exercise their independence, they experience a crisis and assume that larger forces are to blame for usurping this freedom. "For one who refuses to relinquish the assumptions of liberal individualism, such newly revealed forms of regulation frequently seem so unacceptable or unbelievable that they can only be met with anxiety, melodrama, or panic."
...
But what's the actual appeal of believing in conspiracy theories? What purpose do they serve people?
For one thing, conspiracy theories help us cope with distressing events and make sense out of them. Conspiracies assure us that bad things don't just happen randomly. Conspiracies tell us that someone out there is accountable, however unwittingly or secretly or incomprehensibly, so it's possible to stop these people and punish them and in due course let everyone else re-establish control over their own lives. Conspiracies also remind us that we shouldn't blame ourselves for our predicaments; it's not our fault, it's them! In these ways, believing in conspiracies serves many of the same self-protective functions as scapegoating.
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The moon landing. - 
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