The psychology of conspiracy theorists

honestly i've seen better attempts at bait posting for stars and flags in my time as a lurker and a member, and all the long time hard core ATSers should not have even touched this.
but hey if we're throwing star's and flags away now why not.

reply to post by NowanKenubi

Quite right. Just as bad as people who won't see reason are people who say "Obvious fake" without explaining WHY it is a fake. That adds nothing to the argument. Even just a link to an old thread where it has been discussed in detail would be useful.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Great post, FlyersFan. It's the problem inherent in stereotyping. Yes, in some cases, the stereotyping may be true but it does not actually portray a resounding truth for the whole. Stereotypes that are the easiest to pick out of a group that paint a group in a poor light are most often used to dismiss a group. I don't know if any one call me a conspiracy theorist for I spend half my time debunking or, at the least, rolling my eyes at something that I perceive as being borderline delusional. At the same time, I do believe conspiracies exist as a part of human nature. However, in my book, conspiracy can only be, at the most, inferred by compiling and weighing existing evidence because it is, by definition, that which is done in secret.

I prefer the term conspiracy hypothesist and being a watchdog on the abuse of power is my civic duty.

reply to post by Rob48

What's the explanation for this kind of behaviour? And do you agree that it harms the image of the whole community?

I think it comes down to a confirmation bias and a desire to be the "special" person who finds that secret martian base or that UFO from Zog.

Lets take your first example, the guys on ATS who spend days looking at pictures of Mars are not doing it because they want to see what they find, hey are doing it to find evidence of what they believe is already their, life. They have a preconceived believe that they will find a life from or a base and that is what they are looking for when they look at these pictures. Of course they are not going to find it and deep down they know that their "evidence" does not exist but so strong is their desire to be right and be that "special person" that they basically invent the evidence. They allow this confirmation bias to peculate into their mind and before you know they have convinced themselves that the rock is actually a life from because it confirms their preconceived bias of what they think they should find.

In effect with this confirmation bias in this particular instance they see what they want to see a phenomenon called Pareidoia, its just a extreme version of you looking at a cloud and saying "that looks like a boat". However in this instance the conspiracy theorist looks at a group of rocks and says "that looks like a life from" so it must be a life form because the confirmation bias stemming form the preconceived notion that live must exist on mars.

As to the second part of your question, why they defend these obvious fakes with such intensity that comes down to yet another trait that conspiracy theorists exhibit. They tend to believe more than one conspiracy, so the same guy that is telling you that the martian rock is a life form is probably also the same guy who will defend UFO forgery and if you go over their posting history will probably also do the same with UFO abductions, crop circles and other related theories. This is what I call the "Chain of conspiracies", several conspiracies all on the same topic, separate, yet all related that when looked at in their totality form the conspiracy theorists perspective provides 100% evidence of ET. This becomes a almost religious fanaticism, they believe in ET like a priest believes in the good Lord. As a result when you "attack" this by attacking a link in their chain (such as ITS A ROCK) it puts a week link in the chain that makes up the totality of their religious like belief.

It should be noted that this does not apply to all who believe in UFO's this is more a set of traits found in those fanatical conspiracy theorist's who think that its all a conspiracy. I for example do belief in life elsewhere in this universe, I have some serious questions about a whole range of topics, I am in some way myself a conspiracy theorist. The behavior i have described above that you have observed really relates to those who insist everything is a conspiracy.

By the very nature of this site there are quite a lot of people for who everything is a conspiracy.

Interesting question, S&F

Me, personally, I just like a good story fact or fiction and conspiracy has both in abundance. The very fact there could be small truth hidden by the more out there BS keeps me captivated and has for years. I would like to believe a lot of things and debunk a lot of others but im not egotistical enough to think that my unqualified analysis would lead me to start proclaiming things to be true or false and pushing my view on others. I like the debate, the pseudo science and the possibilities of a good yarn. but only semi credible BS gets my attention

I've also noticed that there's often a strong sense of "them and us" in these theories - that there's a separate class of scientists, government employees etc that are in the know and keeping things from ordinary folk.

Whereas, of course, anyone with the inclination, and a reasonable intelligence, can become a scientist or a government employee. They're not selected from some secret elite, they're just people like you and me.

I wonder if there has been any study of correlation between socioeconomic status and belief in the more outlandish theories? Perhaps the people who are unlucky in life and feel that they have been given a rough deal while others are doing well like to believe that they are the victims of a conspiracy by "those people"?

who was it came up with the malaysian plane being swallowed by a black hole again?

reply to post by Rob48

85 billion a month in bailouts in the US alone
id say there are bigger problems then conspiracy theorists

ask germany how she's doing gettting her gold back
(where is that wink wink nudge nudge smiley when you really need it?)

id say people who label the real fifth estate, as opposed to the state run media, conspiracy theorists, usually have a difficult time coping with the responsibilities inherent in living in a democratic society, and aren't sophisticated enough to grasp the reality of the concept of bail ins.

come on piers put the computer down mummy says its time for bed

reply to post by Danbones

Was that reply directed at me or just a general ramble? I can't see anything related to anything I posted.

Rob48
I wonder if there has been any study of correlation between socioeconomic status and belief in the more outlandish theories? Perhaps the people who are unlucky in life and feel that they have been given a rough deal while others are doing well like to believe that they are the victims of a conspiracy by "those people"?

I totally agree.

Again referring to my personal experience with what I would deem as hard core conspiracy theorists. Two individuals I know are up to their eyes in debt, which they obviously incurred themselves, and which they have absolutely no intentions of repaying because of the "global banking scam". It's not their own fault for borrowing the money, it's the bankers fault for making so easy for them to borrow the money. I actually met one of these guys in my local town a couple of years ago whilst he was in the process of visiting every bank on the high street in an attempt to borrow money to buy a new car, and he told me "If I get the money I am not going to repay the loan, it's not real money anyways".

Another guy I know constantly complains of poor health, which he blames upon "chemtrails". He also attributes his lack of success with women to "stuff they put in our food and water". He does have a hard on for Alex Jones though!

A prime example over in the Apollo thread. FoosM claims to have evidence of a lunar cover-up that the finest minds on the planet have failed to spot, and yet he keeps asking questions that a schoolchild would be able to work out the answer to. I'm actually erring on the side of "troll" in this case. Nobody who claims to know about Apollo could be that ignorant, could they?

When I clicked on this Thread I did so because I wanted to see what people had to say about the generalization that conspiracy theorists are crazy or mentally deficient in some way. I've loved conspiracies since i was a child and was discouraged not by my parents but by others who said "that stuff is for crazies and retards" and that seems to be the opinion of the general mainstream population.

I'm not going to say that this is the right opinion because I personally don't believe it is but it is up to people to decide for themselves and if they want to believe what they've been told then that's their business.

People are entitled to their opinion and beliefs even if people don't agree. If the so called "crackpots" are willing to believe in the theories they do to the point where they deny any and all evidence and opinions to the contrary then I a) am absolutely awed by the depth of their faith and b) believe that they should be left to it.

While I despise the stereotype forced upon all conspiracy theorists and believe that if your going to judge someone it should be done on the individual alone nobody can control what other people think and trying to change the minds of people who have the deep seeded belief that we're all insane will be a mostly futile endeavor.

There are more interesting things i'd rather be doing.

originally posted by: Rob48
A prime example over in the Apollo thread. FoosM claims to have evidence of a lunar cover-up that the finest minds on the planet have failed to spot, and yet he keeps asking questions that a schoolchild would be able to work out the answer to. I'm actually erring on the side of "troll" in this case. Nobody who claims to know about Apollo could be that ignorant, could they?

And you dont have an issue singling out members whos views you think are stupid? For all you know that user could be a school kid. That sort of behavior sheds light on the psychology of you.

Thread fail, I wish we could have anti-flags for dribble like this.

Maybe you should find a forum where everyone is intellectually superior like you, and leave us "ignorant" people alone do discourse amongst ourselves.

a reply to: Rob48

Hoagland et al are one thing . . . blurry pics of the moon and Mars are not impressive.

HOWEVER, in terms of globalism . . . there's no theory. The perpetrators have been publicly notifying one and all of what they have been working toward--for more than 60 years.

It's NO "theory."

And, I agree with others . . . folks seeing the facts about globalism cover the range of personalities and motivations as well as IQ's.

These folks are not talking about "theory:"

26. Teddy Roosevelt "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, it was planned that way".

27. Abraham Lincoln: "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

28. Joseph Stalin America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within".

29. Foster Dulles Sec State: ...power to be taken from the people, the states and from congress by international treaties. 1952

30. Jacques-Yves Cousteau: It's terrible to have to say this. World population must be stabilized and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day"

31. Robert McNamara Viet Nam era Sec Def: "The commitment of government to deal with the population issue is of course essential...There are many ways to make the death rate Increase."

from the first link below:

twoday.net...

www.crossroad.to...

www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com...

a reply to: Rob48

Corruption is not a theory.

Evil is not a myth.

Criminals and psychopaths gravitate to places of power.

Wicked people are in control of everything and believe themselves
to be Gods. They see the rest of us as cattle and coin terms like,
"Conspiracy theory" and set trends and fads. They're obvious because
they love war and their agenda is where we are all headed. With never
a step in the direction, that most common folk would agree to be amicable.

This stuff is reality. And hiding from it is whacked.

a reply to: randyvs

Of course there is corruption and evil in high places. (In my experience, though, the vast majority of politicians are simply incompetent rather than maliciously evil -- not too mention too stupid to pull off any kind of high-level deceit.)

But that doesn't mean that total unscientific rubbish like chemtrails are real. It doesn't make every light in the sky an alien ship being concealed by the government. It doesn't mean that the WTC was brought down by explosives. It doesn't mean that badly compressed JPEG images are evidence of secret moon bases.

If you're on ATS, you should be able to see through the low-grade conspiracy nonsense put out on the internet by the likes of Hoagland, White, Sibrel, Perks et al.

They (those in power?) did a pretty good job giving conspiracy theorists a bad name, yes that's a conspiracy right there!
Afer 9-11 I guess a campaign was needed to give conspiracy theorists a bad taste?

I just dislike the word itself, as when you belief there is a good change something isn't kosher you better not speak out or you may get the label ''conspiracy theorist'' on your head!

It's kinda like the name terrorist or freedom, you can put whole groups under those words to get people on a side and support the ''cause''. People just love to put thing/people in boxes.

a reply to: Rob48

If you're on ATS, you should be able to see through the low-grade conspiracy nonsense put out on the internet by the likes of Hoagland, White, Sibrel, Perks et al.

Anyone that can think should know chemtrails aren't happening.
Because we all breath the same air. So there are some conspiracy
theories out there that deserve the term. I don't believe 911 does
and seems so peppered with evidence. That stupid politicians were
involved in a crooked scheme, cooked up by the more intelligent
people who wield power over them. You can't tell me I'm whacked
for seeing what is obviously there.

a reply to: randyvs

While I agree with you about corruption, criminals and psychopaths I have different personal beliefs on Evil that I'm not going to go in to.

I don't believe that people should take things at face value because everybody lies and not questioning what your told goes against basic common sense. But you shouldn't be so harsh, some people are not Psychologically Capable of dealing with the darker points of reality.

Most people in the mainstream are raised and taught to think and act in certain ways and it can be incredibly difficult to break those ingrained behaviors. It's indoctrination from generation to generation and a large chunk of the global population do not realize there are other ways of thinking never-mind that they themselves could think in that way if they wanted to.

a reply to: Sezza115

Excellent post. I don't always get so carried away.