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More on this fascinating disease:
The Inner Worlds of Conspiracy Believers - US News and World Report
By Bruce Bower, Science News
Shortly after terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center and mangled the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, conspiracy theories blossomed about secret and malevolent government plots behind the tragic events. A report scheduled to appear in an upcoming Applied Cognitive Psychology offers a preliminary psychological profile of people who believe in 9/11 conspiracies.
A team led by psychologist Viren Swami of the University of Westminster in London identified several traits associated with subscribing to 9/11 conspiracies, at least among British citizens. These characteristics consist of backing one or more conspiracy theories unrelated to 9/11, frequently talking about 9/11 conspiracy beliefs with likeminded friends and others, taking a cynical stance toward politics, mistrusting authority, endorsing democratic practices, feeling generally suspicious toward others and displaying an inquisitive, imaginative outlook.
Often, the proof offered as evidence for a conspiracy is not specific to one incident or issue, but is used to justify a general pattern of conspiracy ideas, Swami says.
His conclusion echoes a 1994 proposal by sociologist Ted Goertzel of RutgersCamden in New Jersey. After conducting random telephone interviews of 347 New Jersey residents, Goertzel proposed that each of a persons convictions about secret plots serves as evidence for other conspiracy beliefs, bypassing any need for confirming evidence.
A belief that the government is covering up its involvement in the 9/11 attacks thus feeds the idea that the government is also hiding evidence of extraterrestrial contacts or that John F. Kennedy was not killed by a lone gunman.
Goertzel says the new study provides an intriguing but partial look at the inner workings of conspiracy thinking. Such convictions critically depend on what he calls selective skepticism. Conspiracy believers are highly doubtful about information from the government or other sources they consider suspect. But, without criticism, believers accept any source that supports their preconceived views, he says.
Arguments advanced by conspiracy theorists tell you more about the believer than about the event, Goertzel says.
Swamis finding that 9/11 conspiracy believers frequently spoke with likeminded individuals supports the notion that conspiracy thinkers constitute a community of believers, remarks historian Robert Goldberg of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Goldberg has studied various conspiracy theories in the United States.
Conspiracy thinkers share an optimistic conviction that they can find the truth, spread it to the masses and foster social change, Goldberg asserts.
You call it a 'disease' when even your vaunted sources don't make that leap.
What does that say about you?
Besides the obvious fact that you're a smug, condescending asshole, that is...