Psychology Today: Understanding the Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

There’s little question that the internet can help spread false beliefs including conspiracy theories. And research has shown that misinformation tends to spread faster and more widely than factual information. So the internet is clearly a fertile breeding ground for conspiracy theories.

That said, there is no good evidence that conspiracy theories are necessarily more common now than they have been at other points in history. Researchers at RAND have found evidence that the proliferation of false beliefs and the blurring of opinions and facts—something they refer to as “truth decay”—has accompanied each major technological advance in media such as newspapers, radio, and TV over the past century. Something similar seems to be happening now with the internet.

Glenn Beck: Conspiracy!
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