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Psychological Benefits of Believing in Conspiracy Theories

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Re: Psychological Benefits of Believing in Conspiracy Theories

#11

Post by Dudeman112 »

photochemsyn wrote: post #2

Consider the following theory: > "There's an all-powerful, all-knowing entity watching everything you do and recording all your actions, and depending on that behavior you will be either rewarded with a post-life heavenly bliss, or a post-life eternal hellish punishment. A guaranteed way into heaven is absolute loyalty to your feudal lord and payment of a portion of your income to the church and its priests." Yes, th…

>there's no scientific way to disprove any of these theories

And yet probability theory has a lot to say about the likelihood of theories and epistemology has come a long way in the last century

Not every likely (or unlikely) hypothesis is as likely (or unlikely) as each other

Re: Psychological Benefits of Believing in Conspiracy Theories

#12

Post by lampshades »

What a horribly written article. Not the content, just the structure and flow.

In other news, I’m a very big believer in what many would consider “conspiracy theories” and it’s been nothing but detrimental to my life. I wish I was like the rest of you and didn’t believe them.

Re: Psychological Benefits of Believing in Conspiracy Theories

#13

Post by rvieira »

photochemsyn wrote: post #2

Consider the following theory: > "There's an all-powerful, all-knowing entity watching everything you do and recording all your actions, and depending on that behavior you will be either rewarded with a post-life heavenly bliss, or a post-life eternal hellish punishment. A guaranteed way into heaven is absolute loyalty to your feudal lord and payment of a portion of your income to the church and its priests." Yes, th…

A Russell's teapot, basically.

Re: Psychological Benefits of Believing in Conspiracy Theories

#14

Post by escapedmoose »

lampshades wrote: post #12

What a horribly written article. Not the content, just the structure and flow. In other news, I’m a very big believer in what many would consider “conspiracy theories” and it’s been nothing but detrimental to my life. I wish I was like the rest of you and didn’t believe them.

Everybody probably believes in at least one or two. Do you believe in an above-average number of them, or are there one or two conspiracy theories that you think are specifically detrimental to your life?

Re: Psychological Benefits of Believing in Conspiracy Theories

#15

Post by vlunkr »

yesdocs wrote: post #10

Well this explains the election deniers crazy batshit approach to ‘Stop the Steal’. It helps rationalize their belief that Trump flags and MAGA hats make an election. 60 rejected lawsuits doesn’t seem to break the fever. Why don’t we admit it’s a cult? This is how cults work, and they are dangerous.

Certainly when you get the QAnon people it looks like a cult. The unusual thing is that in a typical cult, the leader is very involved in peoples lives. Trump doesn't directly get involved, but they still put him on a pedestal and think that he's secretly on their side and sending them messages.

Re: Psychological Benefits of Believing in Conspiracy Theories

#16

Post by kennend3 »

lampshades wrote: post #12

What a horribly written article. Not the content, just the structure and flow. In other news, I’m a very big believer in what many would consider “conspiracy theories” and it’s been nothing but detrimental to my life. I wish I was like the rest of you and didn’t believe them.

I'm not a conspiracy theory type of person but know a few people who are.

My advice to them is to practice "critical thinking". A fairly easy approach should be to recognize your "confirmation bias' and curiosity and feed that by actively looking for contradictory evidence.

Too often conspiracy theory types seek out evidence to further support their views, without looking at anything else.

I know it is easier said than done, but it is a start.

Re: Psychological Benefits of Believing in Conspiracy Theories

#17

Post by lettergram »

I do enjoy the fact "conspiracy theory" is a pejorative, although it's how we interpret the world as humans. The term only started to become a pejorative because the news / government started pushing the idea as a pejorative in the 50's.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Stigmatization-of-Conspiracy-T...

The term was particular pushed in a negative light onto those questioning the murder of JFK.

https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/cia/russholmes/104-1...

My favorite modern conspiracy that's true, not a theory. Is that there is a ring of elite pedophiles in washington and around the globe trafficking kids. We have confirmation of that with Epstein. Ghislaine Maxwell is currently in prison for the sex trafficking of minors... of course, they failed to prosecute or even mention to whom they were being trafficked; although there's a lot of politicians and wealthy business men who've been seen / visited their island (where the sex trafficking was taking place).

The point I'm making is that the negative connotation with this term comes directly because people in power want it that way; its a way to dismiss criticism and belittle those identifying failure. Identifying what's wrong with the world is good for us.Then sharing and discussing that belief builds a community and a shared identity. There's obviously a benefit to that.

Re: Psychological Benefits of Believing in Conspiracy Theories

#18

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

Dudeman112 wrote: post #11
photochemsyn wrote: post #2

Consider the following theory: > "There's an all-powerful, all-knowing entity watching everything you do and recording all your actions, and depending on that behavior you will be either rewarded with a post-life heavenly bliss, or a post-life eternal hellish punishment. A guaranteed way into heaven is absolute loyalty to your feudal lord and payment of a portion of your income to the church and its priests." Yes, th…

>there's no scientific way to disprove any of these theories And yet probability theory has a lot to say about the likelihood of theories and epistemology has come a long way in the last century Not every likely (or unlikely) hypothesis is as likely (or unlikely) as each other

>And yet probability theory has a lot to say

Would love to see your experiment design for testing with the null hypothesis "there is no god" ... personally, I'm an atheist, but that's still a belief-based position.

Re: Psychological Benefits of Believing in Conspiracy Theories

#20

Post by swayvil »

photochemsyn wrote: post #2

Consider the following theory: > "There's an all-powerful, all-knowing entity watching everything you do and recording all your actions, and depending on that behavior you will be either rewarded with a post-life heavenly bliss, or a post-life eternal hellish punishment. A guaranteed way into heaven is absolute loyalty to your feudal lord and payment of a portion of your income to the church and its priests." Yes, th…

The all-knowing-entity theory was popular. Belief was a simple matter of conformity. Conformity is the rule. Even for us.

The all-knowing-entity theory was conveyed by authority. In theory subject to scrutiny but in practice not really. Exactly like our "scientific facts".

So let's not succumb to the temptation to believe that we are special in our wisdom. (That's another belief shared by every culture.)

If you want to consider yourself wise then you'll probably want to stray from what's "modern and popular" first.

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