Hot! Conspiracy Theories

Assessment Biopsychology Comparative Cognitive Developmental Language Personality Philosophy Methods Social Clinical Educational Industrial

Social Psychology:Add Specialist Topics Here

Information Awareness Office was dropped due to fears that its Masonic symbolism would provoke conspiracy theories .

Aconspiracy theoryattempts to explain the ultimate cause of an event (usually a political, social, or historical event) as a secret , and often deceptive , plot by a covert alliance of powerful persons (sometimes described as “an unseen power elite “) rather than as an overt activity or as natural occurrence.

While history has shown that crimes carried out by a group of people (a “conspiracy”) are not uncommon, the term “conspiracy theory” is usually used by scholars and in popular culture to identify a type of folklore similar to an pejoratively to dismiss allegedly miscon! ceived, paranoid or outlandish rumors.

Most people who have their theory or speculation labeled a “conspiracy theory” reject the term as prejudicial.

Overview

The term “conspiracy theory” may be a neutral descriptor for a conspiracy claim. However, conspiracy theory is also used to indicate a narrative genre that includes a broad selection of (not necessarily related) arguments for the existence of grand conspiracies, any of which might have far-reaching social and political implications if true.

Many conspiracy theories are false, or lack enough verifiable evidence to be taken seriously, raising the intriguing question of what mechanisms might exist in popular culture that lead to their invention and subsequent uptake. In pursuit of answers to that question, conspiracy theory has been a topic of interest for sociologists, psychologists and experts in folklore since at least the 1960s, when the assassination of US Pre! sident John F. Kennedy provoked an unprecedented level of spec! ulation .

Features Origins of conspiracy theories Those events that are most important are hardest to understand, because they attract the greatest attention from mythmakers and charlatans. Psychological origins Epistemic bias? Clinical psychology Sociopolitical origins Disillusionment Controversies Usage The truth of a conspiracy theory Real conspiracies Falsifiability Conspiracy theories in fiction Notes

” ,” The British Psychological Society , March 18, 2003 (accessed June 7, 2005).

” ,” The New Disease: A Journal of Narrative Pathology 2 (2004), (accessed June 7, 2005).

Anti-Semitism ,” 1911 Online Encyclopedia, (accessed June 7, 2005).

Agents and Structures: Journalists and the Constraints on AIDS Coverage ,” Canadian Journal of Communication 25, no. 3 (2000), (accessed June 7, 2005).

Jews and Politics in the Twentieth Century: From the Bund to the Rise of the Nazis . Judaica in the Collections of ! the Hoover Institution Archives. Hoover Institution, Stanford University. URL accessed on 2006-04-28 .

References Further reading Conspiracist literature See also Concepts Repeat Sources of Conspiracy Allegations Conspiracy theories by topic or main figure Assassinations Celebrity deaths Read more Satanic Ritual Abuse Mind control Black propaganda External Sponsor Links Hot! Conspiracy Theories