How can we reconcile the sense that recent conspiracy theories can appear – to put not too fine a point on it – crazy, and clear evidence that they have had a broad, if often transient, appeal? Since 9/11, a succession of conspiracy theories have alleged that major incidents like the Aurora cinema shooting, the […]
On Tuesday 14th October the writer and broadcaster David Aaronovitch visited the project and gave this public lecture on conspiracy theories in an age of transparency, and discussed more recent conspiracy theories. He also discussed developments since he wrote his book, “Voodoo Histories”.
Professor Sir Richard Evans, Principal Investigator and overall director of the project spoke at this year’s Hay Festival (a celebration of Literature and the Arts) as part of the Cambridge Series events this past week. The Times (subscription) reported: Why the plot is thicker for Americans The International Business Times reported: JFK Assassination, 9/11 attacks, Diana’s Death: Why […]
Here’s a link to a blog on the psychology of conspiracy theories, run by a few graduate students working on the topic. The site includes a link to a special issue of the Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group on conspiracy theories. And there’s also an interesting reflection by Michael Wood on the misinterpretations and hostile reactions in […]
Just came on this in my Twitterstream!
Brooding on the conspiracy theories surrounding what happened to Building 7 in 9/11, I fell to thinking about frame 313 of the famous Zapruder film of the assassination of JFK (which, at least until the advent of YouTube must have been the most-watched home movie in history). Here’s how Ron Rosenbaum, writing in the Smithsonian […]
YouGov recently published the results of an interesting poll carried on to mark the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The poll found that one in two Americans have doubts about the government’s account of 9/11, and after viewing video footage of World Trade Center Building 7’s collapse, 46% suspect that it was caused by […]
Trailer for an interesting upcoming film.
“The reason there are conspiracy theories”, runs an old adage, “is because sometimes people conspire”. They do, which is one reason why the sneering condescension with which people talk about conspiracy theories is, well, unwise. It may make statistical sense (because the majority of conspiracy theories are unfounded), but it’s not good epistemology, because sometimes […]
A special issue on “the psychology of conspiracy theories” has just appeared in the journal Frontiers in Personality Science and Individual Differences. One of the papers, by Michael Wood and Karen Douglas of the University of Kent (I put the pdf in our dropbox), looks at the styles of persuasion adopted on internet discussion boards by 9/11 conspiracy […]