all part of the conspiracy theory BS.
i know/know of a few people who believe this shite. i get regular messages off them with links to you tube vids. "you gotta watch this! this is what ive been telling you about!"
yawn..
trying to keep an open mind i watch them though. then, as ever, after wasting an hour of my life, i always come to the same conclusion;
people actually believe this crap?
some points in this article actually describe them pretty well;
2. Conspiracy theory believers have common traits.
While conspiracy theory believers are often trying to satisfy unmet psychological needs, they share other common traits. Douglas'
research suggests that narcissists and people who yearn to feel unique tend to adopt conspiracy theories. She says that seeking information others do not possess helps them feel superior to others.
"Perhaps conspiracy theories allow people to feel that they are in possession of rare, important information that other people do not have, making them feel special and thus boosting their self‐esteem," Douglas
wrote in the 2019 article.
The research Douglas and her co-authors described in that paper indicates that people who experience anxiety, have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction, feel powerless and alienated from politics, hold prejudices toward certain groups, adopt a quasi-religious mentality, and engage in "non-clinical delusional thinking" may be more prone to conspiracy theorizing.
Political views matter as well. People at both extremes of the political spectrum tend to believe in conspiracy theories more, says Douglas. The association between ideology and conspiracy theory beliefs isn't clear yet, but it might be linked to people's need to feel positively about the groups to which they belong, including political parties. An unproven theory that casts one group as malevolently threatened by its opposition could strengthen that group's sense of identity and belonging.
Douglas says it's important for people to know that their "political biases might influence how they process certain types of information."
While scientific research has found associations between conspiracy beliefs and certain personality traits, it's still unclear whether those links are causal. The connection between anxiousness and conspiracy theorizing, for example, might happen because anxiety makes people more vulnerable to those beliefs, or because people become more anxious as they learn about and endorse those ideas.
Shauna Bowes, a fourth-year graduate student researcher in clinical psychology at Emory University, conducted a study that tried to better understand individual personality traits associated with conspiracy beliefs. The results,
published recently in the
Journal of Personality, echoed previous findings that narcissism, poor critical thinking skills, intellectual certainty, reduced inquisitiveness, and anxiety and depression, among other factors, all play a role. Intellectual humility was negatively associated with adopting conspiracy theories, suggesting that modesty and reflection are an advantage.
Bowes says that if more people "pump the brakes" as they assess their beliefs, pausing to see if they include one or more conspiracy theories, it would help make them less vulnerable to those views.
"Changing beliefs is notoriously hard," says Bowes. "[G]etting people to revise their opinions is challenging because we hold our beliefs to certainty. We have a lot of work to do to figure out how to inoculate against [conspiracy] beliefs."
While you can't change strong personality traits or political affiliations overnight, you can improve your ability to cope with uncertainty. Feeling more confident when life is unpredictable may help protect you from the influence of conspiracy theories. That means you're less eager to improve your self-esteem by adopting a specific belief in order to feel special or superior to others.
If you struggle with uncertainty, find ways to enhance existing coping skills or learn new ones. This could mean strengthening ties with family or friends to feel more connected to others,
practicing mindfulness to deal with anxiety, cultivating
moments of joy to reduce stress, volunteering to give yourself an improved sense of purpose, or
seeking therapy to manage your worries.
"With the pandemic and the economic calamity we face, everybody is stressed out, and everybody is super vulnerable, if not to QAnon, then to something else," says Hassan.
anyway, im off to join the flat earth society..
