Is the label ‘conspiracy theory’ a cause or a consequence of disbelief in alternative narratives?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen M. Douglas ◽  
Jan‐Willem Prooijen ◽  
Robbie M. Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Conspiracy Theory

Situating Conspiracy Theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-29
Author(s):  
Susan Lepselter
Keyword(s):  
Conspiracy Theory

A failure of imagination: Competing narratives of 9/11 truth

Diogenes ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 121-129
Author(s):  
Mark Fenster
Keyword(s):  
World Trade Center ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Intelligence Services ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Trade Center ◽  
Cover Up ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

This essay describes the emergence of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon as an object of conspiratorial intrigue and imagination, offering a snapshot of the “9/11 truth movement” and its various theories as they began to reach full bloom. Theories about the attacks have come to constitute the dominant conspiratorial present – a present that looks remarkably like the mid- and late-twentieth-century past, despite significant changes in information technology and the continuing institutionalization and ironization of conspiracy theory as an influential form of popular politics. In addition to the 9/11 conspiracy community, the essay considers the battle over the 9/11 Commission’s review of the government’s failure to anticipate the terrorist attacks. The Commission engaged in knowing and savvy efforts to respond to conspiracy theories and to preempt popular belief in them, offering an authoritative narrative (or, more precisely, set of narratives) to explain what occurred. Meanwhile, the 9/11 truth movement made equally knowing and savvy efforts to critique the official account, responding with its own efforts to reinterpret and re-narrate the attacks, their causes, and what they signify about the contemporary world. While the 9/11 Commission may have criticized the federal government and its intelligence services for their failures of imagination prior to the attacks, the truth movement criticized the Commission either for a failure of imagination – an explanation for the attacks that could see through the “official” account – or for a quite imaginative cover-up of the hidden truths of 9/11. By considering the clash between official authorities and an active conspiracy community, this essay considers how the movement attempted to form a collective political and scholarly community, producing a blizzard of texts offering narratives that compete with the ones told by the Commission that seek the impossible grail of conspiracy theory: the truth. The essay also considers the effects, if any, of the state’s attempt to preempt and respond to conspiracy theories.

scholarly journals Conspiracy Theories and Their Societal Effects During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062110002
Author(s):  
Lotte Pummerer ◽  
Robert Böhm ◽  
Lau Lilleholt ◽  
Kevin Winter ◽  
Ingo Zettler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Random Sample ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Risk Groups ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
Institutional Trust ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Media ◽  
And Behavior

During COVID-19, conspiracy theories were intensely discussed in the media. Generally, both believing in conspiracy theories (i.e., explanations for events based on powerholders’ secret arrangements) and being confronted with a conspiracy theory have been found to predict cognition and behavior with negative societal effects, such as low institutional trust. Accordingly, believing in conspiracy theories around COVID-19 should reduce institutional trust, support of governmental regulations and their adoption, and social engagement (e.g., helping members of risk groups). We tested these predictions in a national random sample survey, an experiment, and a longitudinal study ( N total = 1,213; all studies were preregistered). Indeed, believing in and being confronted with a COVID-19 conspiracy theory decreased institutional trust, support of governmental regulations, adoption of physical distancing, and—to some extent—social engagement. Findings underscore the severe societal effects of conspiracy theories in the context of COVID-19.

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