Belief in Conspiracies Linked to Machiavellian Mindset

Oh my.... this IS funny.....

“For example,” they write, “highly Machiavellian individuals were seemingly more likely to believe that government agents staged the 9/11 attacks because they were more likely to perceive that they would do so themselves, if [they found themselves] in the government’s position.”

Really? They actually feel this is a sound, meaningful, extrapolation of the facts they have gathered? They may as well have just proclaimed that people who believe in conspiracy theories are criminals at heart. I wonder what that says about criminal investigators and forensic profilers.... that they are murderers at heart? Obviously not. That's their "job" some may say. But how does one become successful in such a field? By "knowing" the mind of that which you hunt. Which is OK for them, but not conspiracy theorists who lack moral character by definition - if one puts great weight on this 'study.'

It seems that we are gravitating toward a meme which evokes the following understanding as unspoken truth..... if it is labelled a conspiracy it is not real. (which hearkens to "truth is lie," "freedom is slavery," and "war is peace.")

Here's another gem:

“We do not argue that projection alone explains why people believe in conspiracy theories,” the researchers caution, but these findings point to a potent psychological mechanism that helps explain why some rumors refuse to die.

Which completely denies the potential that the rumor wont die because it is true... once a gain the meme... if it is a rumor - it is false. If you claim a conspiracy, you're just wrong-minded.... I wonder if there will be a pill for this psychological malady in our future.....

Can anyone else see where this is leading?

Welcome to the ushering in of "worldwide eugenics, slight of hand style". Coming soon, to power hungry, ever present government officials near you.

Originally posted by ModernAcademia
I see some agreeing with the article but I do not at all
there's no takes one to know one

That's like saying every police officer is a criminal because that's what they search for

And that is actually true also
many cops will state that if they weren't holding the badge, they probably would be the ones running from it.
its a mindset that can be used for either side.
not every police officer mind you, just the decent ones know how criminals think.

When you want to get a security system installed in the house, you better hope to hell those workers are thinking like criminals...to spot the ways they would come into the place and therefore secure it, etc.

understanding the opposition makes you better at fighting them...to fight the monster, you must think like the monster sort of thing.

reply to post by Maxmars


More information on that - page 4 of the fulltext.

(...)

Finally, the relationship between Machiavellianism and conspiracy beliefs was
fully mediated by participants’ willingness to engage in the conspiracies themselves. In
other words, for example, highly Machiavellian individuals were seemingly more likely
to believe that government agents staged the 9/11 attacks because they were more likely
to perceive that they would do so themselves, if in the government’s position.

The present results are important because they provide the first evidence to suggest
that people endorse conspiracy theories because they project their own moral tendencies
onto the supposed conspirators. Of course, however, this is a correlational study and
so causality cannot be inferred. In Study 2, we therefore aimed to investigate the causal
relationship between a person’s morality, willingness to conspire, and conspiracy beliefs
in an experimental study.

(...)

So, if there are people who believe in conspiracies, and people who believe in conspriacies are more likely to be involved in conspiracies.....

Then people who believe in conspiracy are in conspiracies sometimes.

To wit - conspiracy exist, because people who can think of them sometimes are involved with them.

Which means - there are conspiracies, and not being of a "Machiavellian Mindset" doesn't make them go away.

reply to post by jjjtir


After reading the actual study, maybe so. The study certainly did not indicate that ALL conspiracy theorists were more likely to be willing to behave that way, so maybe we shouldnt take it personally.

But maybe when a thread makes you suspect that humanity really isnt worth saving, we should consider that maybe ATS does in fact have a higher percentage of people who would do immoral things if they could.

Originally posted by Aeons
So, if there are people who believe in conspiracies, and people who believe in conspriacies are more likely to want to be involved in conspiracies.....

I corrected your quote for you so that it could reflect what is meant....

Originally posted by alphabetaone

Originally posted by Aeons
So, if there are people who believe in conspiracies, and people who believe in conspriacies are more likely to want to be involved in conspiracies.....

I corrected your quote for you so that it could reflect what is meant....

Your correction in no way captures my meaning. Thanks anyways.

reply to post by Aeons


Not yours, you're right... what it should mean though...yes.

If your meaning is skewed from the source, then what value does "So what its saying" have?

None as far as I can see.

reply to post by Aeons


Good point.

I was also disappointed in the choice of conspiracies they study mentioned by name. Princess Diana? Why not the Iraq war and the lies told to get us into it?

What I find frustrating about the word "conspiracy" is that it is used as if these are myths, when in fact many have been laid out as fact, after the fact. Are all conspiracy theories true? Of course not. Some are so light on fact its not even really worth considering them. But all conspiracy theories are not the same, and it seems odd to bunch up every conspiracy theorist in the same category.

Originally posted by Illusionsaregrander
reply to post by Aeons

 

Good point.

I was also disappointed in the choice of conspiracies they study mentioned by name. Princess Diana? Why not the Iraq war and the lies told to get us into it?

What I find frustrating about the word "conspiracy" is that it is used as if these are myths, when in fact many have been laid out as fact, after the fact. Are all conspiracy theories true? Of course not. Some are so light on fact its not even really worth considering them. But all conspiracy theories are not the same, and it seems odd to bunch up every conspiracy theorist in the same category.

There are conspiracies, and then there are Thought Experiments that accumulate Believers and become Memes.

The two things are actually different.

Those who can extrapolate a conspiracy are probably capable of Thought Experiments. Not all of them are capable of distancing themselves from becomes Believers though. And therein you get the cross over.

Originally posted by TribeOfManyColours

Hey do some of the comments in the thread of All NWO Agents...hold some truth in it. Cause for a long time I got a feeling you know more

Originally posted by SaturnFX

[color=gold]These are not the droids you are looking for.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e11debef5e87.jpg[/atsimg]

If this study gets even one person to actually read Machiavelli's "The Prince"
"The Prince" by Nicolo Machiavelli
it will be a usefull thing.

And for the advanced student who already knows "The Prince" forwards and backwards
Check out the very difficult to read, yet oh-so-important foundation document of
modern state craft, spying, intrigue, and king making.
The Memoirs of Commines

I can't say enough about this last one.
The prequil to the three musketeers
the secret history of France
How the parliment decides what to popularize and what treaties to hide
The seeds of Germany's rise
The vendetta of the Spider King against Burgundy for what they did to Joan of Arc
and more (first appearance of passports, why the riviera is a place to regroup, and how far the British have come)
so much much more.


From what I understand "The Prince" was written by Machiavelli
as a direct response to what Commines disclosed in his memoirs.




David Grouchy

reply to post by TribeOfManyColours


I cannot understand the obsession with generalisation and statistical analysis as character assesment. I think that there are many conspiracy theories which hold more than a little weight, but personaly speaking I would rather bleed out from the eyesockets than get involved in a conspiracy against my fellow man.
I do not agree, nor accept the methodology employed to return these results.

Hi there.
Crappy theory. It seems that "Conspiracy Theorist" is the "Jew" or "Mason" of today...
In the Soviet Russia it was "Capitalist" or "Imperialist"...Simply obsessed with hatred un-nprmal anty-human kind of person, that mass media always can use as the example of extreme paranoya and potential terrorist
The problem is that we know (well most of us) very well that both of the two world wars was started with "a little bit of help"of many diverse secret services and the similar groups.
The same we can figure about many of more recent or more historic events (its always like with the icebergs
( )
Stalin himself, they say, used to keep a copy of "the Prince" on his night table...
It seems that "the oldest profesion" in the history of humankind was- Agent-provocateur...

Originally posted by gunshooter
really? So since I believe in certain conspiracies they are trying to say that I would actually participate in this $#!+.
This is wrong on so many levels. I refuse to be classed as a possible criminal just because of topics I research. This has got to be strait from a disinfo agents mouth. They (TPTB) are trying to classify us as dangerous people to the common public, and discredit us however they can.

Anyone who goes up against the Messiah Obama, gets labeled and branded. The recent Trump media blitz has them greasing all the gears to counteract it, this is a part of that.

So you are mad that you as a conspiracy buff are going to get labeled as a potential criminal?
Get in line because this is exactly what they did to returning servicemen from Iraq and Afghanistan when they labeled them potential terrorists (and at the same time would not use the word terrorist to describe radical jihadists).
Conspiracy fans are going to be demonized to the full extent of their powers, this is just the start.

Oh and anyone who questions an Obama position is still automatically a racist to these media elites and their handlers so don't act so suprised that they would label another group as undesirables.

How many more steps til Conspiracy Theorists = Criminal?

Personally, I see myself as a pessimist, or realist. I know how lousy other people can be, even when they put on their Sunday's best. I know that everyone has a price, and when you have power, the money comes flyin'.

Originally posted by SaturnFX

Originally posted by TribeOfManyColours
reply to post by SaturnFX

 

Hey do some of the comments in the thread of All NWO Agents...hold some truth in it. Cause for a long time I got a feeling you know more

These are not the droids you are looking for.

Well I got my handheld neural pathway reconstructor

Originally posted by Illusionsaregrander
reply to post by Aeons

 

Good point.

I was also disappointed in the choice of conspiracies they study mentioned by name. Princess Diana? Why not the Iraq war and the lies told to get us into it?

Because those where "usefull" conspiracies that the media elite handlers nurtured. They don't want you to even think that they are conspiracies, they want you to think they are true.

WOW, looking for the truth makes me a conspirator...? Interesting load of bull if you ask me