In this time of fear and uncertainty, conspiracy theories are everywhere. This has the effect of making a chaotic situation even worse. We find ourselves now in a situation where, if there is widespread skepticism towards the media, many people might not follow social distancing guidelines as a result. Some conspiracy theories hold that everything, the media included, is controlled by a select group global elites, the puppet masters of world history. Thus, conspiracy theories are particularly dangerous as they are a key source of this type of skepticism.
Why are we drawn towards conspiracy theories? I’ll admit, I had a brief flirtation with conspiracy theories when I was in high school. I consider it, oddly enough, very important for my intellectual development, although its importance lies it how it propelled me forward to something deeper. When I first read The Da Vinci Code, I became obsessed with the question of whether there was a secret society that has preserved the hidden bloodline of Christ. Eventually, as I kept reading, pursuing every trail of clues I could find on the subject, I thought to myself: well, the book claims to have evidence that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child; the Catholic Church claims to have to evidence that they did not have a child. I realized that before I could decide which claim was true, I had to figure out the nature of evidence. What is evidence? What is truth? How do we know when something is true? What is knowledge? And so on. Conspiracy theories were, for me, a springboard into philosophy. That’s why I consider it an important stage my in development. Once you reach the philosophical stage however, rarely do you return to the conspiratorial. And I never returned.
But I clearly remember being drawn into that world on an emotional level. These theories had some sort of psychological pull, an allure perhaps best captured by what John Chadwick, the classics scholar who deciphered the Ancient Greek writings known as Linear B, wrote: “The urge to discover secrets is deeply ingrained in human nature; even the least curious mind is roused by the promise of sharing knowledge withheld from others.” I thought I would take this opportunity, therefore, to discuss the psychology of the conspiracy theory. Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? The best answers to that question, in my opinion, can be found in the writings of three figures: Karl Popper, Umberto Eco, and Alan Moore.
The philosopher of science Karl Popper defines a conspiracy theory in the following way: “What do I mean by a ‘conspiracy theory’? The conspiracy theory of society is just a version of this theism, of a belief in gods whose whims and wills rule everything. It comes from abandoning God and then asking: ‘Who is in his place?’ His place is then filled by various powerful men and groups—sinister pressure groups, who are to be blamed for having planned the great depression and all the evils from which we suffer.”
What’s wrong with this type of theory, for Popper? The problem with this conspiracy theory of society is, first, that it assumes that various powerful groups are capable of influencing society without any unintended consequences. This unrealistic given that all social situations have unintended consequences. He gives the following example to illustrate his point.
“Whoever wants to sell something always depresses the market value of what he wants to sell; whoever wants to buy something raises the market value of what he wants to buy. This is true, of course, only for small free markets. … You will agree with me that there is no need to prove that the man who wants to sell something usually has no intention of lowering the market price, and that the man who wants to buy something has no intention of raising it. We have here a typical instance of unwanted consequences. The situation described is typical of all social situations.”
