Nothing happens by chance —everything is interconnected— there are no coincidences: in these phrases, one finds the essence of a conspiracy theorist's thought.
Although conspiracy theories had lingered on the periphery of American political life for decades, they have now become a dominant and integral element of it: not more and not less, 147 members of the American Congress voted in favor of objections to the results of the 2020 presidential elections, based on the unproven conspiracy theory of the mysterious group QAnon!
However, this is just the most recent example in a long sequence of conspiracy theories, which includes the satanic panic of the 1980s, the New World Order, fears about toxic fluoridation of water, speculations about the actual assassin of President John F. Kennedy, and the suspicion that September 11 was a "job" staged by the Bush administration.
Michael Shermer presents here a fascinating historical overview of conspiracy theories, starting from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the beginnings of World War I, while also attempting to answer a series of crucial questions from the perspective of cognitive and evolutionary psychology: Why do people believe in conspiracy theories? Which of them have a basis in truth? How could we address them?
According to him, people believe in conspiracy theories because many of them have a kernel of truth (there have been rigged elections, and there are pedophiles). A pervasive sense of anxiety and loss of social control, as well as factors of human personality, also play a significant role.
Finally, valid evolutionary reasons seem to suggest a kind of "constructive conspiratorial thinking" that is a structural element of human nature.
