Psychology of a Conspiracy Theorist

A belief in conspiracy theories may be the result of people feeling more distant from the big institutions that run society, the society heard

Patrick Leman, from Royal Holloway, University of London, said: "They are feeling increasingly powerless."

In his study volunteers were asked about various theories, including that President Kennedy and Princess Diana were assassinated, the Aids virus HIV was created in a laboratory, the EU was trying to take over the UK, and the government was hushing up the existence of aliens and suppressing information about toxins in food.

They were asked to score each out of 150, with 75 and over meaning most people believed it. The Kennedy scenario returned an average of 86, the EU 60, Diana 57, aliens 49, Aids 38 and toxins 95.

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A possible explanation for conspiracy theories

Patrick Leman of Royal Holloway, a college of the University of London, has presented the results of his research into conspiracy theories to the annual meeting of the British Psychological Society, which was held last week in Bournemouth. He thinks the reason people believe in conspiracy theories is that humans have an innate tendency to try to link major events with major causes.

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anyone know of other studies into the psychology of conspiracy theorists?


[Edited on 27-9-2003 by Creepy]

"He thinks the reason people believe in conspiracy theories is that humans have an innate tendency to try to link major events with major causes."

buahahahwhwahhaha. Stupid retarded psychologists. Could they, imagine, for once, investigate the events behind the reasoning? Saying that poeple believe in conspiracy theories becase people have a innate tendency to link major events with major causes is like saying I have an innate tendency to take a # in the toilet every now and then. Everybody engages in thining! He's saying that because people think we have a tendency to believe in conspriacy theories.

Oh, and what do you call Lee. Oswald shooting the president? Assassination. So of course JFK was assassinated!

Here's a couple of things to add to the 'food for thought' of this matter on conspiracies. First, the study itself could be the liar seeing how well the lie worked. Second, in regards to the statements about 'feeling distant from organizations/gov'ts etc.,
of course we all do! We are. For two main reasons:

1)The governments and institutional conglomerates have become unreachable both because of disposition. The institution relieves the public of involvement counting on apathy (planned or not the general public is basically unaware anymore. I don't know whether it is more the slaves being broken or ignorance of by lack of awareness.

2)They don't really exist. Sure, in the 'preceived' reality of lifestyle obsession where it is all about what we need rather than what we have and the blindness generated by this obsession. Television is terrible as people allow their reality to be dictated to them from outside source material. The media in that it as following suit to televisual psychology, prompt mass thought so that everyone is 'on the same page.' Not to mention the fact that each individual person in these institutional environs, is but one alone each not aware of the whole which in itself is a non-entity conciously. they each go home every night no different than you or I. There is no government in reality it is a thought prison. We all BELIEVE it exists, that is how it does exist-reality is all in the mind.

Could be that many have been visiting this* site much to often also.

*site=
Make Your Own Conspiracy Theory
Link:
www.cjnetworks.com...



regards
seekerof

heres his page...hes had some interesting publications...Dr Patrick J Leman

General Description of Research:

My research spans both social and developmental psychology. One central area of interest is on how children develop an understanding of the world through communicating with others. A central question I have sought to explore is how children's social identities influence both the style of interaction between peers and the social knowledge that children construct. Another important question concerns the forms of argument that children use in interaction with others and how different characteristics of children�s conversations can be linked to cognitive change. A related strand of research concerns the development of ethnic identity. A particular focus here is upon the psychological (and other, broader) consequences of the different types of identity children may form and of particular key periods of identity formation in the developmental process.
A broader area of interest lies in exploring the connections between social psychology and developmental psychology. Interests here extend from an exploration of the links between work on social influence and attitude change and socio-cognitive models of development, to issues of cognitive style, identity and knowledge in adult reasoning about conspiracy theories.

[Edited on 26-9-2003 by Creepy]

1. It is not tenable to bash all behavioural scientists because of incomplete and axiomatic analysis by one of them.

2. Total disenfranchisement and resistance to spin and the media machine lead to the most cynical conspiracy theories in my opinion. I agree with Lucifer.

3. Other important factors that come into play (again only in my opinion) are:

* a breaking down of the paternalistic industrial-military machine protective authority crap
* improved education and reasoning skills for school leavers (until let's say the last 20 years, for e.g., in the US) leading to more widespread enquiry
* 'controlled leakage' of interesting variations in silly TV shows to make them appear as fantasy.

There is no prototypical conspiracy theorist or 'tinfoilhatter'. People from all walks of life will develop awareness of things in different ways.

MA....very informative.
Could I ask you to explain further what you meant by:
"* improved education and reasoning skills for school leavers (until let's say the last 20 years, for e.g., in the US) leading to more widespread enquiry"

My reason for asking is not to offend nor anything of that nature.....I am really interested in you further detailing this....it sounded and was a very interesting, if not enlightening, comment or observation. Very thought provoking.

regards
seekerof

My opinion is that 20 years ago, kids coming out of high school needed to have enquiring minds and a basic understanding of how things work in the world (including such things as their rights, and civic duties, and even basic world geography) in order to graduate.

Not any more.

here is the original press release from the British Psychological Society...

Subject: Who shot the president?
Category: Annual Conference 2003
Author: FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Douglas Brown, Press Officer, tel. 0116 252 9500 (work), 07957 725307 (mobile) or Dan Garbutt, Assistant Press Officer, tel. 0116 252 9500 (work), 07710 657900 (mobile).
Display Date: 18/03/2003


The popularity of conspiracy theories might partly be due to the assumption that, when a political leader dies suddenly, it is likely to be due to assassination.
This is one of the findings of research by Dr Patrick Leman of Royal Holloway University of London, who presented his research today, Thursday 13 March, at the British Psychological Society�s Annual Conference in Bournemouth.

Dr Leman presented 64 participants with one of four scenarios in which the president of a fictional country was either; shot and killed, shot but survived, the shot missed and the leader survived, or the shot missed but the leader died from an unrelated cause. When there was a �major event� � the death of the president � people reading the scenarios were more likely to believe that it was caused by a conspiracy.

According to Dr Leman, �When there is a major event, people search for an explanation. There appears to be a general psychological tendency for people to think that a major or significant event must have been caused by something similarly major, significant or powerful. However, often the explanations offered don�t meet the criteria of �major� � for instance, the death of a public figure by a mad gunman acting alone or a tragic accident. Hence people often prefer to believe in conspiracy theories that do provide a major cause�.

It was further found that people who felt that conspiracy theories often explained real life events were more likely to mistrust reported facts as presented in the scenarios. However, those who did not believe in conspiracy theories tended to regard the facts as relatively accurate. According to Dr Leman, �If people become distanced from institutions of power and state, they are more likely to distrust official accounts. This, alongside the bias toward attributing major causes to major events, makes the spread of conspiracy theories more likely.�

[Edited on 27-9-2003 by Creepy]

I would be very interested in MKULTRAs opinion on this thread....

[Edited on 27-9-2003 by Creepy]

Here's a theory:

Psychology in general has it's collective head up it's collective ass.

"...and sometimes a cigar is a big black d!k"

I bet this Patrick Leman person is a FREEMASON! Im not a conspiracy theorist. Im a Conspiracy exsposer!

[Edited on 28-9-2003 by Creepy]

I have very little faith or belief in psychology, to me, it falls in the realm of mysticism itself.

Conspiracy theorists as MA stated, come from all walks of life. Some are rich, some are poor. Some have had previous experience with the gvornment and agencies, some have had none. Some are religious, some athiest, soem have families, some dont. They posses nothing in common, exceot they all believe that everything is not how it seems, and govornments are a bunch of liars.

Its interesting this "research" from this....um....scientist, comes right about the time when UK is starting to make public the ideas that the US govornment was behind 9/11.

Former conspiracy theories that once got laughed at that now are not so funny:

Pearl Harbor and govornment foreknowldge.
The existance of top secret military projects that are now public (from Russian missile testing to US plane tests)
Agent Orange
Govornment experiemntation on citizens with biologicals and chemicals.
Us govornment testing chemicals and drugs on troops.

For starters.

Most conspiracy theorists simply have grown tired of the insults to thier intelligence with all the BS in the media, and can see in front of thier own eyes that wierd # is going on, and the offical explainations simply dont add up to what they are seeing.

Its all another attempt to make us look like tinheaded fools in basements. They are trying everything in thier pwoer, because the more people that start accepting conspiracy theories, the more scrutiny and examination will be given to thier issues and causes.

Awareness must not remain, and the cattle must be kept alseep.

In order to understand Heaven on Earth you need to realize that everything is controlled by a Satanic Game Programmers made up of geeky white men with help from KISS.
The conspiracy first started during the fall of vanilla ice in florida. They have been responsible for many events throughout history, including the dawn of mankind.

Today, members of the conspiracy are everywhere. They can be identified by nose picking.

They want to beat down Hulkster and imprison resisters in detroit using tanks.

In order to prepare for this, we all must take a big bite out of a huge # sandwhich. Since the media is controlled by Bush we should get our information from David Icke.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
I have very little faith or belief in psychology, to me, it falls in the realm of mysticism itself.

There are at least six members on this Board with more than the basic level of training in behavioral science.

Any of them can tell you that psychology just applies the scientific model to behavior, and it can describe, predict, and classify along with any other science.

It is not all Freud, nor Skinner, nor pop psychology mumbo-jumbo, and it can yield results with a significance for all sorts of social decisions about human beings, including decisions made for the worse.

The advertising agency that tries to sell you crud, the government that times its lies and disinformation campaigns, the crap Hollywood film, all use basic psychology at a basic level to keep you in check, while you suck it all up.

Except for people that break themselves out of the mould.

The human mind is a bit more complex than that.

What forms of psychology they use to seel products are more in the realm of magic, which is different from run of the mill psychobabble.\, especially what this moron is babbling. Who is tpo say what causes people to shop? And buy specific products?

If I go out and buy a pizza, it is not because some commerical, advertisement, ect has convinced me with alot of lights and sounds that is the pizza to buy. I go out and buy the pizza because:

1. I have had the pizza before, and find it to be good pizza
2. I am hungry at that time, and have not had any really good food to eat all day, so i figure, what the hell, its friday, ill eat a pizza.

Thus, behavioral models not entirely correct. And since i watch almost no TV and hardly any movies, nor read any magazines, my behavior is driven by whims, urges, or memories.

That is me. people are different. What causes a pleasant reaction on one person might cause violent distatse in another.

Psychology is the act of attempting to explain human emotions, feelings, and behaviors. Something that requires a different spin on science than is currently used.

I still hold little faith in it as a legit science. I am yet to see it provide productive,useful results.

just want to make it clear that i am only playing devil's advocate with this reply...

Skadi wrote---

Conspiracy theorists as MA stated, come from all walks of life. Some are rich, some are poor. Some have had previous experience with the gvornment and agencies, some have had none. Some are religious, some athiest, soem have families, some dont. They posses nothing in common, exceot they all believe that everything is not how it seems, and govornments are a bunch of liars.

i agree completely...however ,what does this have to do with anything?The research(which i can only seem to find bits and pieces of at the moment) doesnt claim anything that would contradict this...the study wasnt about demographics...it never claimed there was a prototypical conspiracy theorist or 'tinfoilhatter'.

Its interesting this "research" from this scientist, comes right about the time when UK is starting to make public the ideas that the US govornment was behind 9/11.

yes it is...and is one reason i asked if anyone knew of other research in this area...

Former conspiracy theories that once got laughed at that now are not so funny:
Pearl Harbor and govornment foreknowldge.
The existance of top secret military projects that are now public (from Russian missile testing to US plane tests)
Agent Orange
Govornment experiemntation on citizens with biologicals and chemicals.
Us govornment testing chemicals and drugs on troops.

and your point is?.....

the researchers didnt present any beliefs as to the validity of any "theories"

Most conspiracy theorists simply have grown tired of the insults to thier intelligence with all the BS in the media, and can see in front of thier own eyes that wierd shyte is going on, and the offical explainations simply dont add up to what they are seeing.

theres a joke in there somewhere

ther are exceptions but one feature of a conspiracy theory is that there are gaps in the "official" line about an event...this allows the space for multiple alternative theories to explain the event...

an example would be the moon landing hoax theory...lets say its obvious that some of the photos and films of the moon landings have been faked or altered...but how does that prove that we didnt go to the moon? couldnt there be a more mundane reason the photos were altered or lied about?

Its all another attempt to make us look like tinheaded fools in basements. They are trying everything in thier pwoer, because the more people that start accepting conspiracy theories, the more scrutiny and examination will be given to thier issues and causes.

some people will ignore mountains of evidence if it doesnt fit into thier "theory"...i think they do far more harm to the validity of legitimate conpiracies ,than do people who take the time to look at all possible explanations and not automatically assume its the worse case scenario...

Awareness must not remain, and the cattle must be kept alseep.

there are cattle on both sides of the fence...some people,no matter what,will always believe everything they hear or read....

[Edited on 29-9-2003 by Creepy]

Creepy,

His research is clearly aimed at making conspiracy theorists look unstable, a bit off, in otherowrds, a joke, like they are very silly people ond rugs.

Mountains of evidence seldom get debated as conspiracies. its when mountains of bull# pile up in connection with other things that conspiracy theories crop up as to why, this obvious heap of bull#, is being passed off a standard and acceptable offical stories?