WHY CONSPIRACY THEORIES SPREAD

Do you want to hear the truth?

You will not able to stand it!

Corona Virus, Bill Gates (The richest man of the world) Let me tell you a story:

If a richest man of the world has enough money to buy a virus and then use this virus as a weapon (a virus) that has been manufactured in Wuhan, China and it is spread across the world through 5G towers and then after that, having bribed the all the governments across the world get the Lockdown imposed and after that, installation of microchips in our hands, Money makes everything possible! The simplest way of world domination. The task would become easier when the other village, George Soros, joins hands with Bill Gates and use vaccines as a weapon and use the 5G tower as a weapon and this a conspiracy against all of us. This is an anti-national conspiracy Beware all of you!

Okay, that was enough of malarkey: Let us now talk on a more serious note. A lot of people across the world today believe in the stories that I just told you. One of them is that Bill Gates has invented the Coronavirus. There’s another story that 5G towers cause cancer and that vaccines are dangerous for us. Some stories in the media also spread the rumor that the Bill Gates want to install microchips inside us and that he has plans of world domination. Misinformation like these are called “conspiracy theories” Nowadays, conspiracy theories are extremely popular in the social media and are widely popular. However today I am going to share you Why do conspiracy theories spread and why do people share them? And can their spread by stopped? How can we factually counter them?

HISTORY OF CONSPIRACIES

Conspiracy theories are not a modern phenomenon. They have been around for centuries. One of the earliest records of a conspiracy theory in history is from the year 64AD, In the era of Roman Empire, the emperor around that time was Emperor Nero, A fire broke out in Rome in 64 AD, The fire was so devastating that it burned two thirds of Rome to ashes, By chance, Emperor Nero was out of Rome when the fire broke out when he returned to Rome, he found out that everything had burned to ashes, He began the process of rebuilding and he got a majestic castle constructed for himself and them rumors started amongst the people that the fire was actually started by Nero to clear everything off and destroy all the buildings in order to construct a palace according to his wishes, This is one of the oldest records of conspiracy theories what’s interesting is that this was not one sided, the people formulated a conspiracy theory against Nero and he retaliated by making another conspiracy theory against Christians, He alleged that the Christian community was responsible for the fire and then Christians were executed and atrocities against them followed. Similarly, several conspiracies against the Jews were formulated in Germany in the 1940’s, they were blamed for the things they were not even responsible for and we all know what was the end result of that so, you can see the extent to which these conspiracy theories can have negative consequences, First of all, this spreading misinformation and feeding people lies but most of the times, it is harmless but what I am trying to tell you is that if these conspiracy theories target a specific community, or if they target a specific person, then its negative consequences can be felt to a very large extent. Therefore, it is very important for use to find out why these conspiracy theories originate, How do they spread? And can we stop them and logically counter them?

WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES?

So the question is- Why do people believe in them? What are the reasons behind this? The reasons can be divided into two main categories:

1. Psychological reasons

2. Social reasons

Talking about psychological reasons first, several research papers have shown that conspiracy theories are a means of understanding the complex world and organizing information for the humans especially the extraordinary, earth shattering events that do not have a clear explanation we do not know that the exact information so, we try to fill in the missing information with our curiosity human have a tendency to do this or events that are extremely unique- that had very few chances of happening, but they did happen event like these give rise to the most number of conspiracy theories like 9/1, moon landing, coronavirus all of these are examples of extremely unique events that are extraordinary and do not happen normally and they surprise us greatly.

There is another reason which is called “ illusionary pattern perception” Humans have a tendency to look for a patten always- to connect the dots we try and relate different events with one another so, basically, we try and look for a pattern even when there is none! No matter how completely random the things are, we still try and look for explanation or pattern there, Some people have a higher tendency to do this, when compared to others but if you take this to an extreme level and apply this to every aspect in your life, then it might change your thinking, this type of thinking is called “teleological thinking”.

Similarly, conspiracy theorists try and accord purpose and intentions to extraordinary events when there is no purpose. These people are not satisfied with random explanations.

Talking about the social category of events, then “seeking validation” comes first, Those people that are most isolated and feel more left out by the society if they have not achieved much or if they are uneducated, such people, in an attempt to feel validated and special and to show that they are well informed as well and to stand out more in their social circles spread conspiracy theory. Basically, they want to show that they are more informed that the rest on political and social events this conclusion was put forward by a research. So we can say that the conspiracy theory was spread through the politician for there political benefits like Emperor Nero.

HOW TO IDENTIFY THEM?

So, how can we recognize that something is a conspiracy theory? How can we tell that its possible something might have actually happened in one case?

There are some characteristics of all conspiracy theories:

1) Every conspiracy theory has one evil mastermind, there is one great villain that runs the entire conspiracy theory who is extremely wicket and formulates all the plans as he is mastermind behind everything. For example: Bill Gates is this villain in the corona virus conspiracy, It is George Soros in some conspiracies, It is the government who is the evil mastermind in 9/11 or moon landing conspiracy.

2) Another characteristic is that there is an attempt to relate unrelated things in every conspiracy theory and it showed how things happen because of other things happening, they say “Co relation is not causation”. For the conspiracy theorists, co-relation is always causation (they think that) this unrelated event surely happened because of some other event.

3) Most conspiracies involves a very large group of people who keep it concealed, if you take the example of moon landing, some people say that Moon landing never happened and that it is perpetual lie but if you point out that there are so many astronauts of NASA and that they can ask anyone of them- they have all been to space and that they can tell them the truth, then they would say that the NASA people are involved in it as well all of the astronauts are in on the conspiracy which is extremely unrealistic to think about that thousands of astronauts are all keeping quiet in a conspiracy, can it realistically happen that no one says anything to anyone and all are part of the conspiracy?

4) Most conspiracy theories have contradictions, a conspiracy theory would say that something happened. But if you try and dig up fact and research, that the facts contradict their beliefs, several times, conspiracy theories are self contradictory.

5) Fifth and Most important: It is next to impossible to disprove any conspiracy theory, no matter what fact you put up against it those facts will become a part of the conspiracy for the conspiracy theorists. Consider this article that I have written here, some people would say that since I am saving the images of Bill Gates, George Soros and US Government as I am disproving the conspiracy theories against them so I must be a part of this conspiracy theory as well, so I must be a part of this conspiracy theory as well and they must have paid me to write this. No matter what you write, or which source you quote, no matter what fact you place before them everything would become a part of that conspiracy that everyone is in on it and that’s how it is happening.

HOW TO COUNTER THEM?

So now the question is: How can we counter conspiracy theories?

The first and the easiest method which is valid for any kind of misinformation is “PAUSE BEFORE YOU SHARE ANYTHING” before you share anything- think. Think about whether what just about to share is correct or not, Google it once, most of the times, the most common conspiracy theories and the misinformation have already been fact checked, Google it once and you will get the results of the fact checking websites, you will get the results of the conspiracy theory websites and you can see the truth for yourself. For example, take the moon landing conspiracy theory, it is often questioned as to why the flag was waving on the moon or why the shadows were crooked the reasons for all of these are already available “The flag was waving due to the movement caused in it when Neil Armstrong was placing flag. We all know that there is no atmosphere on the moon. The flag was waving because of his motion. Similarly, the reason behind crooked shadows is that wide angle cameras were used. You will get the facts easily. All you have to do is pause once, but what will you do when there is no fact check available?

I would say, think critically. Whenever you see something on the internet, first of all, check whether they have the characteristics of conspiracy. Then look into the contradictions within the conspiracy theory and after that think scientifically, consider any statement or theory that you have heard like a hypothesis, just like you have done in 8th and 9th class in Chemistry or while doing thesis, In science, you consider a hypothesis and then you look arguments in favor and against it then compare both and see which argument make more sense and more logical and finally, remember that co relation is not equal to causation. Help the information which I have provided to you to reach more and more people so that we can curb the spread of misinformation and always pause before you spread the misinformation. If you like my writing then please share by blog to reach many more people and keep supporting my work ahead as well.

Take care

Thank you

Ankit Makhaik