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Conspiracy theories: Causes and cures
Open accessAbstract
Many millions of people hold conspiracy theories; they believe that powerful people have worked together in order to withhold the truth about some important practice or some terrible event. A recent example is the belief, widespread in some parts of the world, that the attacks of 9/11 were carried out not by Al Qaeda, but by Israel or the United States. Those who subscribe to conspiracy theories may create serious risks, including risks of violence, and the existence of such theories raises significant challenges for policy and law. The first challenge is to understand the mechanisms by which conspiracy theories prosper; the second challenge is to understand how such theories might be undermined. Such theories typically spread as a result of identifiable cognitive blunders, operating in conjunction with informational and reputational influences. A distinctive feature of conspiracy theories is their self-sealing quality. Conspiracy theorists are not likely to be persuaded by an attempt to dispel their theories; they may even characterize that very attempt as further proof of the conspiracy. Because those who hold conspiracy theories typically suffer from a crippled epistemology, in accordance with which it is rational to hold such theories, the best response consists in cognitive infiltration of extremist groups. Various policy dilemmas, such as the question whether it is better for government to rebut conspiracy theories or to ignore them, are explored in this light.
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“Similarly, different strategies for successful intervention may apply for people who hold strong anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs than those who do not hold strong beliefs [44].”
From The Effects of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Vaccination Intentions (2014) · cites this paper as [44]
In the citing paper
“Conspiracist ideation is also typically immune to falsification because contradictory evidence (e.g., climate scientists being exonerated of accusations) can be accommodated by broadening the scope of the conspiracy (exonerations are a whitewash), often with considerable creativity [32].”
From The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science (2013) · cites this paper as [32]
In the citing paper
“evidence against conspiracy theories is often construed as evidence for them, because the evidence is interpreted as arising from the conspiracy in question”
From The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science (2013) · cites this paper as [32]
In the citing paper
“These general and robust findings help identify communicative means by which the motivated reasoning can be attenuated or circumvented [5], [32], [38], [50].”
From The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science (2013) · cites this paper as [32]
Citations
Cites
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Introduction to the Symposium Conspiracism and Democracy : New Perspectives and Challenges
Bonotti, M., & Nwokora, Z. (2024) · Political Studies Review · doi:10.1177/14789299241235577 · Cited by 2
“A fourth type of information pathology is ‘conspiracism’, which consists of explaining historical or political events by tracing them back to ‘the machinations of powerful peo-ple’ (Sunstein and Vermeule, 2009: 205; see also Cassam, 2019; Cíbik and Hardoš, 2020; Coady, 2018; Moore, 2018).”
BackgroundMedia Use, Feelings of Being Devalued, and Democratically Corrosive Sentiment in the US
Bimber, B., Labarre, J., Gómez, D., Nikiforov, I., & Koc-Michalska, K. (2024) · The International Journal of Press/Politics · doi:10.1177/19401612241253455 · Cited by 2
“Conspiracy theories tend to circulate most effectively among like-minded groups, and mobilizing like-minded others is a motivation for sharing such beliefs (Min 2021; Petersen et al. 2023; Sunstein and Vermeule 2009).”
Conspiracy Theorists’ World and Genealogy
Shoaibi, N. (2024) · Social Epistemology · doi:10.1080/02691728.2024.2362679 · Cited by 2
“So, on the institutional level, we might try to deplatform or regulate people like Jones who do not believe the claims that they make, or design programs of ‘cognitive infiltration’ with covert operatives rebutting various CTs (Sunstein and Vermeule 2009).”
BackgroundPolicing conspiracy theorists: the importance of procedural justice policing and trust
Murphy, K. (2024) · Policing: An International Journal · doi:10.1108/pijpsm-09-2024-0154
Metadata
- Authors
- Sunstein, C. R., & Vermeule, A.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Political Philosophy
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-04-13
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 202-227
- ISSN
- 0963-8016 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9760
- OpenAlex
- W2009369609
- Cited by
- 1,050
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 92 · 2025: 90 · 2024: 98 · 2023: 109 · 2022: 161 · 2021: 107 · 2020: 102 · 2019: 78 · 2018: 63 · 2017: 39 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 2.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- nrs.harvard.edu
- Locations
- Journal of Political Philosophy (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Keywords
- conspiracy theories, 9/11 conspiracy theories, cognitive errors, epistemology, misinformation, extremist groups, countering disinformation, public policy
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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