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Your crazy uncle’s favourite blog post

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Joshua Yoon

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Don’t you know? The moon landing was faked! The Earth is flat! Jet engine fuel can’t get hot enough to melt steel beams…

Too many people believe these things we call conspiracy theories. Ridiculous as it might sound, many people actually believe these kinds of things. But why is that the case? What actually makes someone believe, or become more inclined to believe a conspiracy theory? And what repercussions do these beliefs have?

One common explanation for belief in these theories is their underlying emotions/predispositions towards events. The most commonly attributed emotion is surprisingly anxiety, of all emotions. More widespread feelings of anxiety have been shown to have a correlation with increased belief in conspiracy theories (Moyer, 2019). These anxious predispositions towards events can change your attribution of them. Instead of taking a more reasonable explanation, your mind can drift towards more exaggerated explanations, seen in the wacky conspiracy theories we see today. Feelings of alienation and powerlessness have also shown to have these kinds of effects (Uscinski et al, 2016).

Another factor that could influence you is a sense of wrongdoing. Conspiracy theories tend to rise up more when people feel wronged in some way, and need an explanation (Imhoff and Bruder, 2014). When Joe Biden won the presidential election in 2020, many people who wanted Donald Trump to win accused the elections of being rigged. A study conducted in 2018 found that about 60% of Americans believed that JFK, a widely loved president, was assassinated by the CIA (Douglas et al, 2019). The terror attacks on 9/11 sprung up a variety of conspiracy theories. These examples have an interesting theme- not that they were American, but that a large group of people felt wronged.

Many conspiracy theories are derived from whoever could be on the opposite end of the wrongdoing. This means that they are typically aimed at those with power, or the rich and/or powerful (Imhoff, 2025). Since the “powerful” are limited in number, the theories often find themselves circulating among the proletariat. Some theories can gain traction quickly (especially through social media), and influence real-world activities. In history, this ire manifested itself in witch hunts and revolutions. In modern times, it can show up in struggles for power, especially with politicians and leaders. A prevalent example is the riot that happened on January 6th, 2021 on the white house in response to the presidential elections, as in figure 1. It has also seen itself in a growing anti-vaccination movement since COVID-19 tore through the world, among other nonscientific sentiments.

Figure 1: An image showing the scale of the Capitol raid. Source: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

In conclusion, people tend to believe conspiracy theories through their reaction to events that they were disturbed by. Understanding these conspiracies is also important, as they can eventually burst into events like the US capitol raid. It’s especially important to scientists, as science itself can also be doubted by conspiracies. But before you judge conspiracy theorists on their outlandish ideas, just remember that a broken clock is right twice a day.

References

Douglas, K.M., Uscinski, J.E., Sutton, R.M., Cichocka, A., Nefes, T., Ang, C.S. and Deravi, F. “Understanding Conspiracy Theories.” Political Psychology, 40 (2019): 3-35. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12568

Imhoff, Roland. “The Psychology of Conspiracy Mentality”. PsyArXiv, (2025). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/e4sn7_v1.

Imhoff, R., & Bruder, M. “Speaking (Un–)Truth to Power: Conspiracy Mentality as A Generalised Political Attitude.” European Journal of Personality, 28 (2014): 25-43. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1930

Moyer, Melinda Wenner. “WHY WE BELIEVE CONSPIRACY THEORIES.” Scientific American 320, no. 3 (2019): 58–63. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27265112.

Uscinski, Joseph E., Casey Klofstad, and Matthew D. Atkinson. “What Drives Conspiratorial Beliefs? The Role of Informational Cues and Predispositions.” Political Research Quarterly , 69, no. 1 (2016): 57–71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44018529.

Comments

7 Responses to “Your crazy uncle’s favourite blog post”

  1. Griffin Suk Avatar
    Griffin Suk

    Hello Joshua,

    This blog post was really interesting! I appreciated the title and the overall theme of exploring the science behind conspiracy theories. I just have a few suggestions for your final draft.
    1. Make sure to add a comment to your blog post to explain why you chose the topic and how it connects to course content.
    2. It is important, when adding a rhetorical question, to answer it after it has been introduced. It can help stray away from the topic, as it can distract the reader from the original topic. I would suggest adding a brief explanation of the consequences of believing in conspiracy theories (i.e. social isolation, etc.).
    3. Make sure to reference the figure in your text. For example, in P6S2, you could change it to: “Understanding these conspiracies is also important, as they can eventually burst into events like the U.S. Capitol raid (Figure 1).”

    Overall, this was a very interesting blog post! As someone who used to watch the Shane Dawson conspiracy videos about internet conspiracies (for entertainment purposes), it was very interesting to learn more about what makes some people so convinced by them.

    Happy editing,

    Griffin Suk 🙂

  2. Euna Kim Avatar
    Euna Kim

    Hi Joshua,

    This blog post was an interesting read! I liked your fun title- immediately establishing the tone draws the reader in. I think it particularly works well with your topic, as conspiracy theories are often subject to serious contexts or controversial discussions.

    A suggestion I have for your final draft includes taking the extra step to explain why conspiracy theories have an explanation for the feelings of anxiety, or alienation. For example, mentioning how the idea gives individuals a sense of control in uncertain events. This connection could add another layer to your explanation, and build on your argument.

    Furthermore, I feel that it would be valuable to mention how different conspiracy theorists can arrive at similar beliefs with different psychological backgrounds. For example, acknowledging that individuals have different reasonings for their beliefs and that feelings of anxiety, etc. are not universal experiences among all conspiracy theorists. This could further avoid any generalization of a category.

    Overall, I really enjoyed reading your work! Your real world examples made the content engaging for readers, especially those (like me!) who find learning about different conspiracy very interesting. Happy editing!

    – Euna

  3. Ellie Jeong Avatar
    Ellie Jeong

    Hi Joshua,

    I really enjoyed reading your blog post! I especially liked how you started with familiar conspiracy theories in a humorous tone when introducing the topic. It caught my attention right away.

    I found it interesting how conspiracy theories can be influenced by people’s emotional responses to events, especially when they feel like something is unfair, like people who supported Trump after Biden won the presidential election. One suggestion I have is to explain how social media can reinforce these beliefs by exposing people to similar opinions repeatedly, making conspiracy theories seem more believable over time.

    Overall, I think your real-world examples helped show why understanding the psychology behind conspiracy theories is important. Great blog, and happy editing!

    – Ellie

  4. Joshua Yoon Avatar
    Joshua Yoon

    Hi Isci,

    A while back in our psych lecture we learned about how dispositions could affect your worldview, and my immediate first thought was “Hey, this is how people come up with conspiracy theories!”. So, I did a little bit of digging and came up on this blog post.

    Please enjoy reading and I appreciate any and all feedback!

  5. Laura Forgrave Avatar
    Laura Forgrave

    Hi Joshua,

    This was a really interesting post that got me thinking more about the “reasoning” behind why people believe conspiracy theories! A couple of suggestions:
    P3S1: I assume the expression “their underlying emotions/predispositions” refers to the emotions of conspiracy theory believers, but in this sentence the “their” refers to the theories, which it it a little confusing. You could change this sentence to: “One common explanation for why certain people believe a conspiracy theory is their underlying emotions or predisposition towards that event.”
    For Chicago style citations, you don’t need a comma after the author’s name.
    P3S5: I would change the verb “taking” to “accepting” for better flow.
    P3S6: add the word “been” before “shown to have” to make the verb tense correct.
    P5S1: The phrase “whoever could be on the opposite end of the wrongdoing” does not flow very well and is not very specific, I would change it to something such as “blaming people who could be considered responsible for the perceived wrongdoing”
    P5S2: I would cut the phrase “those with power or” as the sentence is understandable without these four words, giving you a bit more room to expand on the impact of social media on conspiracy theories later in this paragraph, like Ellie suggested.
    P6S1: Ending a sentence with “by” is not ideal, maybe change “through their reaction to events that they were disturbed by” to “due to their emotion reaction to the events on which the theories are based”
    P6S4: The entire article focuses on how conspiracy theories are wrong but people still develop and believe them, but this sentence then points out that they are sometimes right, which I think is too dramatic a shift for the last sentence of the article. Conspiracy theories being partially right would be a fascinating topic for another blog post, but I would avoid trying to add too many ideas to this post in the very last paragraph. Instead, maybe consider expanding on how conspiracy theories can cause people to doubt scientists, and how that’s important for us to consider when we are communicating science to the public.
    References: Some of your links are hyperlinked and some are not, I would hyperlink them all to make it consistent.

    This was a really unique topic, I enjoyed reading all about conspiracy theories! Happy editing!
    Laura

  6. Charlie Appleton Avatar
    Charlie Appleton

    Hi Josh,

    Very unique post with an enticing title and hook! here are some suggestions:

    S1P2 : The phrase “Too many people believe these things we call conspiracy theories” is a personal opinion rather than a scientific fact. I would replace “too many” with real data or a study showing how common the beliefs are.

    S5P5: i believe the riot happened at the U.S. Capitol building “A clear example is the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol…” might be an improvement

    S2P3 : “The most commonly attributed emotion is surprisingly anxiety, of all emotions” sounds clunky and repeats the word emotions. “Surprisingly, anxiety is the emotion most often linked to these beliefs.” might be a bit more smooth

    S5P5: i would reference the image simply as (Figure 1) instead of “as in figure 1”

    Good luck editing!
    Charlie

  7. Sara Osman Avatar
    Sara Osman

    Hi Joshua,

    This was a very engaging blog post with a humorous and attention-grabbing title! I particularly liked how you used recognizable conspiracy theories and real-world examples to introduce the psychological and societal factors behind conspiracy beliefs. Here are a few suggestions:
    – Your discussion of anxiety, alienation, and powerlessness is interesting, but could benefit from briefly explaining how these emotions influence people’s need for explanations or a sense of control. This would help strengthen the psychological connection.
    – Figure 1 is relevant to your discussion, but it would be helpful to expand the caption slightly to explain the significance of the image and how it connects to the conspiracy beliefs discussed in the paragraph.
    – Your conclusion has a memorable ending, but I think the “broken clock is right twice a day” analogy you used could be explored a little further. You make an interesting point about conspiracy theories often emerging from feelings of powerlessness and distrust towards those in positions of authority. It might be worth acknowledging that these feelings are not unfounded, as working- lass communities have legitimate reasons to feel exploited or neglected by ruling institutions. Distinguishing between legitimate criticism of powerful institutions and unsupported conspiracy theories could make your argument more nuanced and strengthen your overall message.

    Great job and happy editing!
    Sara

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