It’s more than that. Conspiracy thinking like this is about feeling powerful and in control.
If all the bad stuff that happens to you is because of a shadowy cabal out to get you, it puts you in the middle of something huge, and you can even do something about it! If you just live in a vast uncaring universe where you can’t do anything and bad stuff just happens sometimes, that’s not comforting at all!
There and better and worse variants, but the fundamental issue I’m identifying is the tendency to want to believe ‘good stories’. I think it’s a profoundly human flaw, related to our evolution and history as a species that tells stories to transmit information. We believe a good story. It’s pleasurable to lose yourself in story. You remember good stories. But a story being ‘good’ has little and less to do with it being true.
While we’re discussing this issue in the light of conspiracy theories with no basis, I think the flaw extends to all domains of human life where communication and evaluation are necessary.
It’s more than that. Conspiracy thinking like this is about feeling powerful and in control.
If all the bad stuff that happens to you is because of a shadowy cabal out to get you, it puts you in the middle of something huge, and you can even do something about it! If you just live in a vast uncaring universe where you can’t do anything and bad stuff just happens sometimes, that’s not comforting at all!
There and better and worse variants, but the fundamental issue I’m identifying is the tendency to want to believe ‘good stories’. I think it’s a profoundly human flaw, related to our evolution and history as a species that tells stories to transmit information. We believe a good story. It’s pleasurable to lose yourself in story. You remember good stories. But a story being ‘good’ has little and less to do with it being true.
While we’re discussing this issue in the light of conspiracy theories with no basis, I think the flaw extends to all domains of human life where communication and evaluation are necessary.