Why conspiracies are so popular — and what we can do to stop them

[Captain Caveman]

Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, false narratives can be incredibly sticky. Many people insist that the earth is flat, that childhood vaccines cause autism, or that climate change is a hoax, despite ample scientific evidence to the contrary.

“Stories are very powerful,” said Timothy Tangherlini, a UC Berkeley professor in the Department of Scandinavian and the School of Information. “We’re much more comfortable with hearing stories that confirm our beliefs than ones that challenge them.”

Tangherlini sees narratives like these, and the many other conspiracies that are rife in today’s internet culture, as a type of modern-day folklore. As a computational folklorist, he uses AI tools to study how social media networks have accelerated the spread of conspiracies and false beliefs, and what, if anything, we can do to slow them down.

Following an election cycle dominated by conspiracies and hoaxes — from elites controlling the path of hurricanes, to 20 million missing votes for Kamala Harris and immigrants eating people’s pets — Tangherlini’s work is more relevant than ever. Berkeley News spoke with Tangherlini about why conspiratorial thinking has flourished in recent years and how we might spread stories of inclusion and truth that are powerful enough to stem the tide of false belief.

Why conspiracies are so popular — and what we can do to stop them - Berkeley News

UC Berkeley Professor Timothy Tangherlini uses lessons from folklore and AI to understand how social media fuels the spread of conspiracies, and how we can use storytelling tools to stem the tide of misinformation.

news.berkeley.edu

How Do You Silence a Conspiracy Theory?​

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump loved a conspiracy theory.

He started his political career by stoking the lie that President Obama was not born in the United States. By 2024, he complained, falsely, that noncitizens would vote in the November election and throw the result to Democrats. He declared on a debate stage that immigrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets. He promised to release government files on Sept. 11 and the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and told Fox News that “I guess I would” release the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein, too.

As president, though, he’s finding that it’s a whole lot easier to start a conspiracy theory than it is to put one to rest.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/us/politics/conspiracy-epstein-files-trump.html

I'm not so sure calling the true believers "stupid" is going to do the trick. Chalk that comment up to the frustrations of an irritated older man who has lost control of the narrative he helped start.

They could be forgiven for expecting more details. Trump installed two vocal Epstein conspiracy theorists and right-wing media personalities, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, to run the F.B.I. after both men spent years telling their audiences there really was a there there. This spring, Attorney General Pam Bondi promised big revelations about the case that have come to nothing.

trump devotees thought, inexplicably, he could be relied on to tell the unvarnished truth when other politicians wouldn't. That their "anti-establishment" hero was one of them. IOW, he pulled off a Herculean feat of deception.

I would say a Left Wing person is more likely to believe conspiracies because they tend to be overly driven by emotions.

 

[berg80]

I would say a Left Wing person is more likely to believe conspiracies because they tend to be overly driven by emotions.

Scientific research does not align with that opinion.

 

[Billiejeens]

I would say a Left Wing person is more likely to believe conspiracies because they tend to be overly driven by emotions.

and conditioned to only believe their echo chamber.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Scientific research does not align with that opinion.

I suggest you start reading the National Library of Medicine if you believe that.

 

[Captain Caveman]

and conditioned to only believe their echo chamber.

Aka, parochialism

 

[Midnight FM]

I would say a Left Wing person is more likely to believe conspiracies because they tend to be overly driven by emotions.

You say that like it's a bad thing, it isn't.

Scientific evidence shows that relying on emotions or instincts can allow people to make better decisions than relying on thought. Instincts, for example, are evolutionarily hardwired into humans and animals and aid them in survival.

An athlete, for example, has to make decisions on the fly during the middle of a sporting match without being able to spend too much time "thinking" about what their doing. And obviously, a person can't simply read a book about how to play football and instantly become a successful quarterback.

The Power of Emotions in Decision Making

Emotions play a major role in making decisions. When integrated properly with rational thinking, they can enhance the effectiveness of the decision-making process.

www.psychologytoday.com

 

[Meister]

Conspiracy gobbling MAGA, of course. Trump, of course, the leader of MAGA and the GOP.

Y'all love conspiracies.

"Y'all" do too. Ever think of that?

 

[Tumblin Tumbleweed]

The problem is the receptive audience. They create the demand.

There are people who think Qanon is real, that pro wrestling is real, that the earth is flat, that Donald Trump is wonderful, brilliant, strong, honest, moral. I'm not sure how, but believing that stuff satisfies something in them.

They are manipulable and susceptible to flawed information. And when a juicy conspiracy theory comes along that fits and tickles their disordered worldview, they're all in. They fully believe it immediately and without question.

This particular group is now greatly empowered. To (once again) quote another poster, Trump took one look at the talk radio crowd and said, "THIS is gonna be EASY".

Entitled people with grievances make easy marks.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I'm making an ass out of myself for noting how eager MAGA is to gobble absurd conspiracy theories in bulk?

Or for asking for what 'false information' Mueller used as the basis of his conclusions in the Mueller report?

As there is no debate that Russia helped the Trump campaign in the 2016 election. Even Gabbard doesn't deny this. With the 2016 intel leadership team determining that Russia helping the Trump campaign constituted a preference by the Russians for Trump's victory.

Where is the 'lie'? Let alone the justification for EXECUTING the 2016 intel leadership team?

Best Biden Ever!

Runs circles around his staff!

 

[Skylar]

Best Biden Ever!

Runs circles around his staff!

Ah Crusader! A classic conspiracy theorist. Once these folks have formed an emotional attachment to what they've been told to ape, they'll cling to it until they die.

That's why those on the hunt for new conspiracy recruits usually seek out an ignorant audience. Informed folks are far less likely to form the irrational emotional attachments necessary to cling to conspiracy theories contradicted by mountains of evidence.

Like Crusader does here. Note the date from this year.

 

[Skylar]

"Y'all" do too. Ever think of that?

Not in the sheer, overwhelming volume that MAGA requires to sustain itself.

Trump alone has;



Promoted the Obama birther conspiracy, including entire made up investigators in Hawaii
Promoted the Harris birther conspiracy
Promoted the Nikki Haley birther conspiracy
Promoted sundry conspiracies about Seth Rich
Promoted the Clinton 'kill lists' conspiracy
Promoted the conspiracy that Epstein was killed by Clinton
Promoted the conspiracy he won in 2020
Promoted the conspiracy that he won the popular vote in 2016
Promoted the conspiracy that he won the popular vote in 2016 and 2020 in CALIFORNIA
Promoted the conspiracy that he had the largest crowd ever at his inauguration in 2016
Promoted conspiracies of fraud in the 2012 election
Promoted the conspiracy that Google manipulated votes in the 2020 election
Promoted the conspiracy that Dominion Voting System deleted millions of Trump votes
Promoted the conspiracy that three and five million non-citizens voted in 2016
Promoted the conspiracy that Obama controlled the Biden administration
Promoted the pizzagate conspiracy
Promoted the Vince Foster conspiracy
Promoted the conspiracy that the BLS numbers had been 'rigged' and 'faked' by the BLS commissioner.
Promoted the conspiracy that Justin Trudeau was the son of Fidel Castro
Promoted the conspiracy that Scarborough was involved in the death of Lori Klausutis
Promoted the conspiracy that cocaine found in the white house was Hunter Biden's
Promoted the conspiracy that the Epstein Files were falsified by democrats
Promoted the conspiracy that Haitian immigrants in Ohio ate cats and dogs
Promoted the conspiracy theory that Obama and Biden staged a body double of Osama Bin Laden to kill
Promoted the conspiracy that Obama and Biden may have had Seal Team 6 killed
Promoted the conspiracy that 81% of whites killed were killed by black people.
Promoted the conspiracy that Bill Ayers wrote Obama's autobiography
Promoted the conspiracy that the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive
Promoted the conspiracy that autism rates were only 1 in 10,000 twenty years ago
Promoted the conspiracy that wind turbines cause cancer
Promoted the conspiracy that the move against asbestos was led by the mob
Promoted the conspiracy that Hillary Clinton had been spying on Trump
Promoted the conspiracy theory that Obama supported ISIS and was an ISIS sympathizer
Promoted the conspiracy that Joe Biden was executed in 2020 and replaced by a robotic clone
Promoted the conspiracy that the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi with a hammer was staged


The sheer volume of these conspiracies is astonishing. Is Trump so gullible and devoid of the capacity for reason that he believes them all? Or does he know that the MAGA movement is founded on conspiracy, and his supporters don't ask for evidence and don't reason?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Ah Crusader! A classic conspiracy theorist. Once these folks have formed an emotional attachment to what they've been told to ape, they'll cling to it until they die.

That's why those on the hunt for new conspiracy recruits usually seek out an ignorant audience. Informed folks are far less likely to form the irrational emotional attachments necessary to cling to conspiracy theories contradicted by mountains of evidence.

Like Crusader does here. Note the date from this year.

View attachment 1146245

Obama's publisher decided, all on her own, to rewrite his Bio....sure

And she never sent it back to the author for his approval.....sure

 

[Skylar]

Obama's publisher decided, all on her own, to rewrite his Bio....sure

And she never sent it back to the author for his approval.....sure

And as I described earlier.....once an uninformed person has been formed an emotional attachment to the conspiracy, there's no quantity of evidence that they won't ignore.

This is why conspiracy theorists seek out the ignorant. The Birthers do this. The Truthers do this. The Flat Earthers do this. They seek folks who don't know any better and try to get them to form emotional attachments to whatever conspiracy they're pitching.

Once that emotional attachment is formed, their capacity for rational thinking and processing of evidence is no longer a factor in their decision making about the topic of that emotional attachment.

As Crusader here demonstrates for us with his fixation on the Birther conspiracy. Frank is an elegant demonstration of what I'm describing.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

And as I described earlier.....once an uninformed person has been formed an emotional attachment to the conspiracy, there's no quantity of evidence that they won't ignore.

This is why conspiracy theorists seek out the ignorant. The Truthers do this. The Flat Earthers do this. They seek folks who don't know any better and try to get them to form emotional attachments

Once that emotional attachment is formed, their capacity for rational thinking and processing of evidence is no longer a factor in their decision making about the topic of that emotional attachment.

As Crusader here demonstrates for us with his fixation on the Birther conspiracy. Frank is an elegant demonstration of what I'm describing.

LOL!

Sorry, that's funny. Do you know how publishers actually work?

 

[BluesLegend]

Best Biden Ever!

Runs circles around his staff!

Are Dems growing tired of our rubbing their noses in Joe Biden?

 

[Skylar]

LOL!

Sorry, that's funny. Do you know how publishers actually work?

More less than Miriam Goderich?

See, you'll ignore her too. Just like you ignored Obama's birth certificate, every Hawaiian official, the Department of Health of Hawaii, the governors of Hawaii (democrat or republican), the laughably implausibility and pristine lack of evidence of the birther conspiracy, and anything else that doesn't match the topic of your emotional attachment: the birther conspiracy.

You can't induce this kind of obsessive fixation and desperate, willful ignorance of evidence in an informed audience. Which is why conspiracy theorists try and recruit from an ignorant audience...and try to get them emotionally attached to the conspiracy before they are exposed to evidence about the conspiracy.

As CrusaderFrank demonstrates, once that emotional attachment is formed, there's literally no quantity of evidence they won't ignore to cling to the focus of that attachment.

This is how conspiracy theorists are propagated: narratively and emotionally.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

And as I described earlier.....once an uninformed person has been formed an emotional attachment to the conspiracy, there's no quantity of evidence that they won't ignore.

This is why conspiracy theorists seek out the ignorant. The Truthers do this. The Flat Earthers do this. They seek folks who don't know any better and try to get them to form emotional attachments to whatever conspiracy they're pitching.

Once that emotional attachment is formed, their capacity for rational thinking and processing of evidence is no longer a factor in their decision making about the topic of that emotional attachment.

As Crusader here demonstrates for us with his fixation on the Birther conspiracy. Frank is an elegant demonstration of what I'm describing.

So wait.

She could have written, "Barack Obama, allergic to soap, has chronic body odor and lost rock, paper, scissors to a box of rocks" right?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

More less than Miriam Goderich?

See, you'll ignore her too. Just like you ignored Obama's birth certificate, every Hawaiian official, the Department of Health of Hawaii, the laughably implausibility and pristine lack of evidence of the birther conspiracy, and anything else that doesn't match the topic of your emotional attachment: the birther conspiracy.

You can't induce this kind of obsessive fixation and desperate, willful ignorance of evidence in an informed audience. Which is why conspiracy theorists try and recruit from an ignorant audience...and try to get them emotionally attached to the conspiracy before they are exposed to evidence about the conspiracy.

As CrusaderFrank demonstrates, once that emotional attachment is formed, there's literally no quantity of evidence they won't ignore to cling to the focus of that attachment.

This is how conspiracy theorists are propagated: narratively and emotionally.

Obama's "birth certificate" is a bad forgery

 

[Skylar]

Obama's "birth certificate" is a bad forgery

Says your slavish adherence to your emotional attachment and narrative based reasoning.

Thank you for demonstrating my point elegantly and clearly. There's literally nothing a conspiracy theorist won't ignore once they've emotionally committed to the conspiracy.

Nothing.

 

[defcon4]

Obama's "birth certificate" is a bad forgery

"Health director who approved Obama birth certificate dies in plane crash​

The health director who approved the release of President Obama’s birth certificate has died in a plane crash, Hawaiian officials said Thursday.Loretta Fuddy died after the Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft she was travelling on went down shortly after leaving Kalaupapa Airport at around 3:15 p.m. local time (10:15 a.m. ET) on Wednesday. The other eight people on board were rescued, Richard Schuman"

Health director who approved Obama birth certificate dies in plane crash

The health director who approved the release of President Obama’s birth certificate has died in a plane crash, Hawaiian officials said Thursday.Loretta Fuddy died after the Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft she was travelling on went down shortly after leaving Kalaupapa Airport at around 3:15 p.m...

www.nbcnews.com

...and she was the only one who died in the crash.