Conspiracy theories: Causes and cures

“While it can be used nonpejoratively in reference to any hypothesis about any conspiratorial plot, the label “conspiracy theory” is conventionally applied to whatever is considered an unequivocally ridiculous, unfounded narrative, which is scoffed at and easily debunked (Sunstein and Vermeule, 2009).”

“For example, as indicated in the theoretical work by Sunstein [69], empirical works found that users’ social interactions and availability of limited information can lead them deeper into conspiracy theory rabbit holes [37, 56].”

“A conspiracy theory can generally be defined as “an effort to explain some event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who attempt to conceal their role” (Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009).”

“Of course, if elements of the U.S. government were complicit in 9/11, then pervasive efforts by “[US] government agents (and their allies)” (Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009, p. 244) to subvert the 9/11 truth movement make sense.”

“24Cassam in turn is following Sunstein and Vermeule (2009) in identifying CTs with the self-sealing feature. no surprise that they would end up being self-sealing in the sense that their members’ tend to be reluctant to change their views based on contrary evidence.”

“Conspiracy theories here refer to “an effort to explain some event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who attempt to conceal their role [. . .] until their aims are accomplished” (Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009, p. 205).”

“Despite all the talk about ‘post-truth’ and the like (Vacura 2019), an acrossthe-board renunciation of expertise seems limited to particularly politicized topics and adherents of fringe epistemologies (Sunstein and Vermeule 2009; Kahan 2017; Nguyen 2020a).”

“To some extent, note van Prooijen and Douglas, this assumption is understandable, because conspiracy theories can be found everywhere on the Internet (Culloty 2021; Sunstein and Vermeule 2009).”

“Within conspiracy theories, the unequivocal condemnation of political opposition and the call for the urgent eradication of dissent undermines pluralist democratic discourse, thus fueling political polarization and radicalization [4, 45, 99].”

“Conspiracy theory denotes “ an effort to explain some event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who attempt to conceal their role ” (Sunstein and Vermeule, 2009: 205).”

“One of the most cited texts on this subject, by Sunstein & Vermeule (2009, p. 204) for instance, concocts the term “crippled epistemology” to frame conspiracism as a symptom of individuals having “a sharply limited number of (relevant) informational sources,” leading to a misrecognition of the…”

“…have suggested that belief in conspiracies serve a psychological function for people who feel powerless, excluded or disadvantaged, to explain events that are difficult to comprehend (Furnham, 2021a; Sullivan et al., 2010; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009; Uscinski & Parent, 2014; Walter & Drochon, 2020).”

“…perspective has been adopted by those in power who compare conspiracy beliefs to an infectious disease that spreads through the public (Sunstein and Vermeule 2009), either with malicious intent or, as Clarke (2002) argues, as an unfortunate effect of the public’s “cognitive failure.””

“…role of conspiracy myths and narratives for the pathology of democracy, the schol‐ ars discuss almost exclusively the vices and pathologies conspiracy theories imply for democracy, e.g., misinfor‐ mation (Bronner, 2013; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009) or political radicalisation (Lee, 2020).”

“In an influential article co-authored with Adrian Vermeule (Sunstein and Vermeule 2009), responding to what they regard as the particular problem of disinformation fuelled by a growing profusion of ‘conspiracy theories’, he has argued that it is better to take general steps to suppress them, at the cost of sometimes s…”

“Several persuasion and behavior change theories have been used to comprehend the individual and social factors that affect public health behaviors (Tan et al., 2015).”

“…on the one hand that ‘conspiracy theories are a subset of the larger category of false beliefs’ and on the other hand that ‘some conspiracy theories have turned out to be true, and under our definition, they do not cease to be conspiracy theories for that reason’ (Sunstein and Vermeule 2009, 206).”

“Sunstein and Vermeule (2009) noted the serious risks of some conspiracy theories and the importance of understanding the “causes” and “cures” of conspiracy cascades.”

“The “state-of-the-art” approach of saturating a social system with rational, evidence-based argument [54] does not consider the drivers of PK evolution on the Internet and could, paradoxically, inoculate greater resistance.”

“nment, are more susceptible to false information. Conclusions Conspiracists generally tend to explain a signicant social or political aspect as a secret plot by powerful individuals or organizations [17] and their activity is proliferating over the web. This study provides a genuine outline of the online social dynami…”

“They offer alternative explanations to those who seek to understand events that are insufficiently explained by mainstream accounts (Hardin, 2002; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009).”

“Second, this does not offset the backfire effect and the information coming from an authority figure, a teacher, could further intensify conspiracy endorsement (Craft et al., 2017; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009).”

“For example, norms of online communities can play an important role on the way community members perceive and respond to conspiracies and related misinformation [39, 102, 122].”

“…it helps to further advance the concept by highlighting how psychological factors and social processes shape the interplay between the ‘self-sealing quality’ (Sunstein & Vermeulen, 2009) of conspiratorial thinking and the development of an ideological meta-narrative within these anti-publics.”

“As Sunstein and Vermeule (2009) highlight, governments that instil values of corporate governance such as fairness, transparency, open communication and Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. trust can reduce the effects of local rumours, mistrust of citizens and scepticism of staff members’…”

“…in political studies and the social sciences considers them as forms of psychopathological thought, on both the individual and social level (e.g. Sunstein and Vermeule 2009); for cultural studies scholars, the current prominence of conspiracy theories can be taken as metaphorical expressions of…”

“Conspiracy theories are beliefs that powerful individuals or groups cause wide-ranging and significant events and circum-stances – including economic crises, natural disasters, and wars – for their own personal gain (Oliver & Wood, 2014; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009).”

“We next turn to conspiracy theories, which are efforts to explain an event by invoking the machinations of powerful people, who attempt to conceal their role while pursuing malevolent goals (Sunstein and Vermeule 2009).”

“These theories put forward unsourced information or jump to conclusions lacking disclosure [18,24].”

“…using the concepts of fake news (Egelhofer & Lecheler, 2019; Guess et al., 2019), disinformation (Bennett & Livingston, 2018;McKay& Tenove, 2021), rumors (DiFonzo& Bordia, 2007; Friggeri et al., 2014), or conspiracies (Douglas et al., 2019; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009), amongst other concepts.”

“For instance, work investigating the specific ways in which conspiracy theories develop (e.g., Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009) assumes that, although in its formation phase a conspiracy theory is likely to be accepted only by those who strongly believe in it, at a later point in time individuals with…”

“…evidence and in deciding what question they want to ask’ (Byford, 2011: 92); second, they ‘indis-criminately accept any argument that points to conspiracy’ (Pipes, 1997: 41); and third, they are ‘resistant and in extreme cases invulnerable to contrary evidence’ (Sunstein and Vermeule, 2009: 223).”

“Conspiracy theories are a prominent form of online disinfor-mation claiming powerful individuals secretly drive social phenomena (Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009).”

“Moreover, Sunstein and Vermeule (2009) discussed “conspiracy cascades” and how fringe narratives often start with conspiracy entrepreneurs who begin circulating a controversial idea for attention.”

“…the role of education CT are attempts to explain a phenomenon or an event in terms of actors secretly abusing their power to accomplish their own goals with the result of depriving the people of rights, freedom, prosperity, health or knowledge (Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009; Uscinski & Parent, 2014).”

“33 Cassam’s (2023) characterisation of conspiracy theories as ‘self-sealing’ is echoed by Sunstein and Vermeule (2009), and by Napolitano (2021).”

“…groups within society may adopt widely varying opinions on the validity of conspiracy theories: “Speaking with like-minded others, some people may come to find such a theory irresistible, [while] others may come to find it preposterous” (Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009, 217; see also McHoskey, 1995).”

“Sunstein and Vermeule (2009) posited that, when an increasing number of social members were convinced of a conspiracy theory, those who did not believe in the theory would also accept it under group pressures.”

“In their own way, Sunstein and Vermeule (2009) make the claim as well, at least with respect to “open societies.””

“Previous studies have related these specific conspiracy theories to right-wing attitudes (Barreto, Cooper, Gonzalez, Parker, & Towler, 2011; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009), ideologically extreme leanings (van Prooijen, Krouwel, & Pollet, 2015) and populist preferences (Mancosu, Vassallo, & Vezzoni,…”

“For some researchers, conspiracy theories may constitute a flawed way of thinking related to some cognitive deficit (e.g., Darwin et al., 2011; Goertzel, 1994; Sunstein & Vermeule, 2009).”

“There are the gener-alists who argue that belief in conspiracy theories is prima facie irrational (Cas-sam, 2019; Napolitano, 2022; Napolitano & Reuter, 2021; Sunstein and Vermeule, 2009).”