Read each pair of statements (a and b). Tick the one you agree with more. When you have finished, score your questionnaire using the instructions at the bottom.

Conspiracy Theories Why people believe weird things.

Three types of CT (Barkun, 2003) Event conspiracies – E.g. JFK assassination Systemic conspiracies – E.g. Freemasons/Illuminati/Jews Superconspiracies – Multiple linking e.g. JFK assassinated by Freemasons to ensure US remained in Vietnam war so Illuminati could us captured UFO technology to fake moon landings so they could draw attention away from how fluoridising tap water was allowing the CIA to control minds of US populace...

Features of CTs (Keeley, 1999) The ‘classic’ CT... – Runs counter to ‘official’ account – Attributes nefarious motives to conspirators – Ties together apparently unrelated events – Alleges a ‘cover up’ by powerful figures – Focuses on errant data

Cognition Recently we have looked at confirmation bias (the ESP demonstration) and pareidolia (the ‘hidden backwards messages’). How might these two processes contribute to belief in conspiracy theories?

But why are some people more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than others?

Personality and CTA Locus of control is a measure of how far people see themselves as in charge of their own destiny – Internal LOC – in control of things – External LOC – controlled by external circumstances What relationship might we expect between LOC and CTA scores?

You are about to see 12 black and white stimuli. Some of them are images of something and some are just random visual noise. Write ‘yes’ if you see an image and ‘no’ if you don’t.

Whitson & Galinsky (2008) PPs whose sense of control was undermined were significantly more likely to perceive random patterns as meaningful images. What relationship might we expect between the number of random stimuli perceived as meaningful and CTA scores?

Intergroup processes & CTs Social Identity Theory – People’s sense of self is derived from their membership of social groups e.g. cultural, religious, political, occupational, sporting, interests... – We divide the world into in-groups (those we belong to) and out-groups – We enhance our self-esteem by overvaluing in- groups and undervaluing or denigrating out- groups

Intergroup processes & CTs How might belief in conspiracy theories relate to social identity? How might belief in conspiracy theories serve to enhance self esteem?

Conspiracy Theory Acceptance Basic need to perceive meaningful patterns Confirmatory bias in use of evidence to make judgements Perceived lack of control over situation Need to feel superiority over out-groups Social identity as a CT-Believer e.g. ’truther’ Lack of self- esteem

Remember, sometimes conspiracy theories turn out to be true.